Use of empirical polarity parameters to describe polymer/liquid interactions: Correlation of polymer swelling with solvent polarity in binary and ternary systems

Abstract

Abstract Dimroth and Reichardt polarity parameters E T (30) have been used, in a new approach, to quantitatively describe the swelling features due to polymer liquid interactions in binary and ternary systems. With the help of a polyurethaneimide (PUI) synthesized from polytetramethyleneglycol 650, sorption of pure liquids was first examined, and it was shown that a linear relationship between the molar swelling G m and the E T (30) values well fits the experimental data of each of the two series studied, i. e., aliphatic alcohols and linear ethers: G m = a+b E T (30). The slope value b , regarded as the sensitivity of the polymer to the liquid polarity, is 3 times higher for the aprotic series. The proposed correlation was further proved valid from the study of published results concerning nine binary systems polymer–liquid, whatever the polarity of the liquids in a given family (alcohols, esters, ketones, hydrocarbons) and the nature of the polymer. Finally, that method was tested on two types of PUI‐alcohol‐ether ternary systems, and it was found for each case that the partial molar swelling due to an homologous set of solvents can also be described by a similar law. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.