New approaches to characterize polymeric oil additives in solution based on pyrene excimer fluorescence

Maleated polyolefins (MaPOs) such as maleated ethylene propylene copolymers or polyisobutylene terminated at one end with a succininic anhydride can be used as polymeric dispersants in engine oils after reaction with polyamines while unmodified EP copolymers improve the viscosity index of oils. MaPOs can also be labeled with pyrene derivatives to generate pyrene‐labeled polyolefins (PyLPOs) as fluorescent mimics of oil additives and pyrene excimer fluorescence (PEF) can be applied to probe their behavior in solution. This review describes new methodology that was recently implemented to characterize the complex fluorescence signal emitted by PyLPOs by using steady‐state and time‐resolved fluorescence. This methodology enables one to gain quantitative information about the level of clustering of the succinic pendants along a maleated polyolefins and intra‐ and intermolecular aggregation of polyolefins in solution. Such information is relevant to scientists aiming to characterize polymeric oil additives used in engine oil. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017 , 55 , 7–18