Nonequilibrium Model for Sorption and Swelling of Bulk Glassy Polymer Films with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

A new procedure is introduced for the calculation of solubility isotherms of plasticizing agents in glassy polymer matrices with particular application to the case of absorption of supercritical gases in bulk glassy polymer films. The model presented is an extension of the nonequilibrium thermodynamics for glassy polymers (NET-GP) approach, modified to allow for the calculation of the effects of pressure, temperature, and gas concentration on the glass transition. Mass sorption and one-dimensional swelling behavior are analyzed for the carbon dioxide (CO2)−poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) system at high pressure. A quantitative comparison is presented between the model performance and experimental data measured using quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and high-pressure ellipsometry (HPE).