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The effect of styrene grafting on the diffusion and solubility of organic liquids in polyethylene
Author(s) -
Fels Morton,
Huang Robert Y. M.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.1970.070140303
Subject(s) - solubility , styrene , copolymer , polyethylene , grafting , polymer chemistry , benzene , crystallinity , hexane , materials science , diffusion , hildebrand solubility parameter , chemical engineering , chemistry , polymer , organic chemistry , composite material , thermodynamics , physics , engineering
The effect of grafting styrene onto low‐density polyethylene on the diffusion and solubility of benzene and n ‐hexane in the graft copolymer has been investigated. The diffusion coefficient at zero concentration D c = 0 for both benzene and n ‐hexane decreased with the amount of styrene grafting in the polyethylene–styrene graft copolymer membrane. The free volume parameters of the polyethylene–styrene graft copolymer were calculated using benzene and n ‐hexane as the diffusing species. Results show that there is a large decrease in free volume as grafting proceeds and the effect is more pronounced at low levels of grafting. Solubility was found to be a function of the per cent grafting, there being a 50%–90% increase in benzene solubility in a 26% graft compared to polyethylene. The increase in solubility for n ‐hexane was considerably lower. The effect of crystallinity on the free volume parameters has also been calculated.