Solubility measurement of hydrogen, ethylene, and 1‐hexene in polyethylene films through an intelligent gravimetric analyzer

Abstract

ABSTRACT The solubility of hydrogen (H 2 ), ethylene (C 2 H 4 ), 1‐hexene (C 6 H 12 ), and the mixture of C 2 H 4 /1‐C 6 H 12 in semicrystalline polyethylene (PE) films is measured using an intelligent gravimetric analyzer (IGA) in combination with prediction equations. For the pure‐component sorption in PE, the solubility of C 2 H 4 and 1‐C 6 H 12 decreases with the temperature, while that of H 2 exhibits an opposite variation tendency in the temperature range under test. For the C 2 H 4 /1‐C 6 H 12 mixture, the co‐solubility is almost 10% smaller than the sum of the pure‐component solubility. 1‐C 6 H 12 acts as a co‐solvent and C 2 H 4 an antisolvent. Moreover, good consistency has been achieved between the measured data and the prediction results from the Sanchez‐Lacombe EOS model, demonstrating the reliability of the measurement approach employed in this work. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134 , 44507.