Scale dependent diffusion in latex films studied by photoinduced grating relaxation technique

The transition from an aqueous dispersion of polyacrylate latices into a homogeneous polymer film on drying has been studied by monitoring the diffusion of hydrophobic and hydrophilic photochromic molecular probes with the help of a holographic grating relaxation (forced Rayleigh scattering) technique. Experiments with the hydrophobic probe in wet films result in an unusual spatial scale-dependence of the apparent diffusion coefficient that degenerates into a normal scale-independent diffusion coefficient as the film dries. Employment of a two-state diffusion model allows extracting the diffusion coefficients and mean displacements of the tracer in the polymer cores of the latex particles a…