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Solubility of isobutane and propane in polyethylene at high temperatures and low pressures
Author(s) -
Meyer J. A.,
Blanks R. F.
Publication year - 1983
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.1983.070280227
Subject(s) - isobutane , solubility , propane , acentric factor , thermodynamics , polyethylene , work (physics) , vapor pressure , chemistry , materials science , organic chemistry , physics , catalysis
A novel procedure was developed to measure the solubility of isobutane and propane in both low and high‐density polyethylene at temperatures to 500°F (260°C) and vapor pressures from 1 to 1500 torr (33 psia). These measurements represent the first known solubility measurements at these combined extremes of pressure and temperature. Excellent agreement was found when our data were extrapolated to higher pressures and compared with data from another source. In the temperature and pressure regions of interest in this work, the linear isotherms were fit with a form of the Flory–Huggins equation. With the equation in that form we can now estimate the ratio of solubilities of two solutes in a given polymer from pure solute data only. We can also predict the absolute solubility of nonpolar solutes in polyethylene at various temperatures and pressures using only critical temperatures and acentric factors of the solutes.