Search results for "polymers"
showing 10 items of 3567 documents
Calculation of phase diagrams not requiring the derivatives of the Gibbs energy demonstrated for a mixture of two homopolymers with the corresponding…
1995
A method is presented which allows the calculation of phase diagrams (spinodal, binodal and tie lines) on the basis of the Gibbs energy of mixing ΔG. No derivatives of ΔG with respect to the composition variables are required. This method is particularly useful in cases where the composition dependence of ΔG is very complex and no analytical representation of the derivatives can be given. The method is applied to a ternary mixture of two homopolymers with a copolymer consisting of the same monomers. The sequence distribution of the copolymer is kept constant between random and purely alternating, and phase diagrams are calculated for different chemical compositions of the copolymer. The com…
Thermodynamics of a polymer blend solution system studied by gel permeation chromatography and viscosity
1999
Binary and ternary interaction parameters and their derivatives have been calculated with the Flory-Huggins formalism developed for a ternary polymer system. The equilibrium compositions of the ternary system tetrahydrofuran/polybutadiene/polystyrene that forms two phases in equilibrium at 25°C have been used to solve the binodal equations. With this set of parameters, the viscosimetric interaction parameters have been computed. For the sake of comparison, the experimental viscosimetric parameter has been determined from intrinsic viscosity data of a polymer (3) in a "binary solvent" (solvent + polymer (2)). It has been clearly shown that composition-dependent parameters are necessary to re…
Demixing time and temperature influence on porosity and interconnection of PLLA scaffolds prepared via TIPS
2009
Scaffolds suitable for tissue engineering applications were prepared by Thermally Induced Phase Separation (TIPS) starting from a ternary solution PLLA/ dioxane/water. The experimental protocol consisted of three consecutive steps, a first quench from the homogeneous solution to an appropriate demixing temperature (within the binodal region), a liquid-liquid demixing stage for a given time and a final quench from the demixing temperature to a low temperature (within the spinodal region). A large variety of morphologies, in terms of average pore size and interconnection were obtained upon modifying the demixing time and temperature, owing to the interplay of nucleation and growth processes d…
Calculation of miscibility behavior of multinary polymer blends
1996
A method for the calculation of phase diagrams (tie lines and binodal, spinodal, critical points and their stability) based exclusively on the Gibbs energy of mixing, δG, is presented which does not require the calculation of the derivatives with respect to the composition. The method is demonstrated for ternary mixtures of two homopolymers and the corresponding copolymer, and for quaternary and quinternary blends of five polymers exhibiting a closed miscibility gap. The advantages of the presented method become most obvious in the mathematical description of measured phase diagrams, where complex composition dependencies of the interaction parameter are observed.
Compatibility between polystyrene copolymers and polymers in solution via hydrogen bonding
2006
Abstract It has been applied the concept of improving miscibility, by introducing and optimizing the extent of intermolecular hydrogen-bonding interactions between two polymers. We select a commodity polymer such as polystyrene, to study the compatibility in chloroform with poly(vinyl pyridine) and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone), both considered as proton acceptors. In order to enhance polymer–polymer miscibility, polystyrene is slightly modified by copolymerization with methacrylic acid, in the first case, and with vinyl-phenol comonomer, in the second one. In this way, two series of polystyrene-based copolymers are synthesized and characterized bearing ca. 8% (w/w) of –OH groups. The miscibility…
Polymer Incompatibility Caused by Different Molecular Architectures: Modeling via Chain Connectivity and Conformational Relaxation
2009
The calculation of phase diagrams for blends of linear and branched polymers made up of identical monomeric units is modeled using an approach that subdivides the mixing process into two steps: i) contact formation between the different components, keeping their chain conformations and the volume of the system constant; and, ii) relaxation of the macromolecules into their equilibrium state by molecular rearrangements. It is assumed that step (ii) causes shape-induced polymer incompatibility and that the degree of branching can be quantified in terms of the volumes the isolated coils of the branched polymer occupy in relation to the volume the linear product with the same molecular weight oc…
Demixing of unsheared and sheared solutions of polystyrene in tert-butylacetate and the pressure influence on their flow behaviour
1979
For the system tert-butyl acetate/polystyrene (M= 670000) the phase separation behaviour (upper critical solution temperatures, upper critical solution pressures) is investigated by means of visual and turbidimetric cloud-point measurements and by viscometry. For near-critical concentrations the visually determined cloud-points are found at higher, for low concentrations at lower temperatures as compared with the turbidimetrically determined binodal temperature,Tbin Plots of the invers of the turbidity measured atTbin as a function of the polymer concentration,w2, yield a minimum from which the critical composition can be determined. The viscometrically obtained demixing points (break-down …
Determination of phenytoin in plasma by molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction.
2001
Abstract A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) using phenytoin as template and methacrylamide as the functional monomer was prepared. The selectivity was measured by comparing capacity factors of phenytoin and other structurally related compounds. The polymer was evaluated as a selective sorbent in molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE). Several washing solvents were tested to study their ability to disrupt the non-specific interactions occurring between the sample and the polymer matrix and the role of water in the recognition process was also investigated. It was shown that the key step of successful sample extraction is the right choice of the washing solvent. Plasma sample…
Novel antimicrobial ultrathin structures of zein/chitosan blends obtained by electrospinning
2009
Abstract This paper describes the formulation, morphology and biocide properties of novel antimicrobial electrospun zein based ultrathin fiber structures. From the results, it was found that the electrospun fibers of zein can turn the material into a new strong antimicrobial ultrathin-structured system due to retention of remnant amounts of trifluoroacetic acid as determined by ATR–FTIR spectroscopy. Unfortunately, this system may be considered to yield very aggressive high acidic media due to release of the strong acid, which causes the antimicrobial behavior. Nevertheless, since biocide properties are more desirable at mild acidic conditions, blending zein with the natural antimicrobial c…
Antimicrobial beeswax coated polylactide films with silver control release capacity.
2013
Although the application of silver based antimicrobial systems is a widespread technology, its implementation in areas such as food packaging is still challenging. The present paper describes the fabrication of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) coated with beeswax with controlled release properties for sustained antimicrobial performance. Release of silver ions from the polymers was monitored voltammetrically under various conditions (surface contact, immersion in various liquid media and at different pH values) throughout at least 7days. A higher release was noted with decreasing pH while surface release was much slower than the release when immersed in liquid medium. While uncoated films demonstrat…