Interaction of polyvinylpyrrolidone and iodine

Abstract A nonsolvent preparation of the polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) complex provides new insight into the nature of the polymer‐iodine interaction. The preparation is obtained by simply mixing PVP with crystalline iodine and is of interest because it provides a system in which no interfering ions are present and only one type of iodine is initially present. The iodine is shown to undergo hydrolysis with moisture in the polymer to give iodide and hypoiodite. The ionic forms of iodine appear to associate with the molecular iodine, resulting in the final stable PVP‐iodine complex.