Search results for "solvent effect"
showing 10 items of 166 documents
"Dormant" secondary metal-alkyl complexes are not omnipresent.
2006
This theoretical study was inspired by the perpetual debate over the so-called “dormancy” of the active sites in propylene polymerization, i.e., a drop in their activity after a regioerror (2,1-insertion), which was reported to occur in many (although not all) catalytic systems. To explore the range of possible situations, we have selected two homogeneous systems of fundamentally different structure: an octahedral system of C 2 symmetry with a tetradentate O N N O ligand and a bridged indenyl catalyst. This choice was not accidental; it is in these two systems where the experimentalists cannot reach a consensus about dormancy. Our density-functional theory calculations explain why in certa…
On the viscosity of moderately concentrated solutions of poly(ether imide) in a mixed solvent of marginal quality
2000
Abstract Viscosities η were measured for moderately concentrated (15.5 wt%) solutions of poly(ether imide) (PEI) as a function of the composition of the cosolvent tetrahydrofuran (THF) plus γ-butyrolactone (γ-BL). The solutions are almost by a factor of four less viscous when THF predominates than when γ-BL is the major component of the solvent mixture. Furthermore, the viscosity passes a minimum as the composition of the mixed solvent is varied. Both observations can be well understood in terms of the viscosities of the mixed solvents and the hydrodynamic interaction between the polymer molecules. The pronounced dissymmetry of η as a function of the composition of the mixed solvent η resul…
Poly(4-vinylbenzoyl azide): A New Isocyanato Group Generating Polymer
2007
4-Vinylbenzoyl azide was synthesized from p-vinylbenzoic acid and polymerized by free radical polymerization. The obtained polymer contained acyl azide groups which were thermally transformed to the corresponding isocyanato groups. Reactions on these polymers with ethanol, hydroxyethyl methacrylate and 1-pyrene-butanol proceeded quantitatively. Time-resolved FT-IR studies of the reactions with ethanol were carried out by varying the concentration and temperature. The effect of the solvent polarity on the Curtius rearrangement was investigated.
Solvent-Induced Length Variation of Cylindrical Brushes
2001
Communication: Polymacromonomers with a main chain much larger than the side-chain length adopt the form of cylindrical brush polymers the contour length per mainchain monomer of which depends on the side-chain length. In the present investigation it is demonstrated that the length per monomer also depends on the solvent quality, i.e., the cylinders are shorter in a poor solvent as compared to a good solvent. It is argued that the repulsion of the side chains represents the extension force, which acts against the entropic contraction force of the main chain. Thus, cylindrical brushes may be suitable as responsive materials for sensors, actuators or soft machines.
Interactions between polymer brush-coated spherical nanoparticles: the good solvent case.
2011
The interaction between two spherical polymer brushes is studied by molecular dynamics simulation varying both the radius of the spherical particles and their distance, as well as the grafting density and the chain length of the end-grafted flexible polymer chains. A coarse-grained bead-spring model is used to describe the macromolecules, and purely repulsive monomer-monomer interactions are taken throughout, restricting the study to the good solvent limit. Both the potential of mean force between the particles as a function of their distance is computed, for various choices of the parameters mentioned above, and the structural characteristics are discussed (density profiles, average end-to…
Pressure-Induced Formation of Diblock Copolymer "Micelles" in Supercritical Fluids. A Combined Study by Small Angle Scattering Experiments and Mean-F…
2004
We developed a simple mean-field theory to describe polymer and AB diblock copolymer phase separation in supercritical (SC) fluids. The highly compressible SC fluid has been described by using a phenomenological hole theory, properly extended to consider the solvent/polymer/vacancy pseudoternary mixture. The model has been applied to describe the phase behavior of AB-diblock copolymers under the assumption of a strong solvent selectivity for just one copolymer chain. In our model the solvent selectivity is a strong function of the external pressure because in compressible fluids vacancies reduce the number of favorable solvent-polymer contacts. The combined effect of the pressure on the ave…
Association Equilibria Theory for Polymers in Mixed Solvents with Specific Interactions
2004
Hydrogen bonding plays an important role in determining the physical and thermodynamic properties of polar fluids. Theoretical and experimental aspects of polymers, in mixed solvents with hydrogen-bonding-specific interactions, are investigated using a simple association model based on the theory of association equilibria developed by Pouchly et al. The thermodynamic non-idealities are accounted for using a modified Flory-Huggins theory with effective g ij parameters. The entropic term of the above formalism has been formulated taking into account the pplymer segment-solvent as well as the solvent-solvent hydrogen-bond formation. Four equilibrium constants are introduced to make a realistic…
A thermodynamic analysis on the coincidence of extrema conditions in the sorption equilibrium for ternary polymer systems
1993
Flory-Huggins theory of polymer solutions has been used to express the condition of extrema values in the total sorption, as well as the inversion point in the preferential adsorption parameters for termary polymer systems. Two approaches have been followed, the first considers the binary and ternary interaction parameters independent of polymer concentration and solvent composition. In the second one, this dependence has been introduced. Our attention is focused on the volume fraction of solvent mixture dependence of the above parameters, in order to confirm or not the coincidence between the extrema values and the inversion point. Several cosolvent and cononsolvent ternary polymer systems…
A comparative study between cosolvent and cononsolvent ternary polymer systems through the preferential adsorption coefficient
1993
Sorption equilibrium of polystyrene and poly (dimethyl siloxane) in mixed solvents has been monitored by means of the preferential adsorption coefficient experimentally determined from intensity light scattering measurements. The pairs of solvents used to dissolve each polymer sample have been selected for the purpose to perform cosolvent and cononsolvent ternary polymer systems. Flory-Huggins formalism including ternary interactions has been used to predict the sorption equilibrium for the cosolvent system and, for the first time, for cononsolvent ones. Moreover, the proportionality between binary and ternary interactions, recognized by Pouchly, is also corroborated for both ternary polyme…
Polymer brushes in solvents of variable quality: Molecular dynamics simulations using explicit solvent
2007
The structure and thermodynamic properties of a system of end-grafted flexible polymer chains grafted to a flat substrate and exposed to a solvent of variable quality are studied by molecular dynamics methods. The macromolecules are described by a coarse-grained bead-spring model, and the solvent molecules by pointlike particles, assuming Lennard-Jones-type interactions between pairs of monomers (epsilon(pp)), solvent molecules (epsilon(ss)), and solvent monomer (epsilon(ps)), respectively. Varying the grafting density sigma(g) and some of these energy parameters, we obtain density profiles of solvent particles and monomers, study structural properties of the chain (gyration radius componen…