RELATION BETWEEN THE SWELLING AND SOLUTION BEHAVIORS AND THE THREE DIMENSIONAL SOLUBILITY PARAMETERS FOR VARIOUS POLYMERS IN ORGANIC SOLVENTS

The effects of solvent properties on the swelling and solution behaviors of various polymers were investigated in terms of the three dimensional solubility parameter concept. The balance of solubility parameters are represented by f-values which are defined as follows, where δd stands for the component due to dispersion forces, δh the component due to hydrogen bonding and δp the component due to polar forces.By considering the balance of three dimensional solubility parameters a considerably improved correlation was obtained between f-values and the extent of interactions of solvent molecules with polymers. The f-values are correlated with the substantial solvent-polymer interactions too, e. g. fd for polypropylene, fh for nylon 6 and fp for polyacrylonitrile have a great influence on their swelling and solution.