Acoustic studies of styrene– and α-methylstyrene–alkane copolymers

Abstract

Acoustic propagation measurements on a series of solutions of styrene– and α-methylstyrene–alkane copolymers in toluene and decalin are reported. Observed relaxation times clearly show how the ease of conformational change of the aromatic moiety increases with increasing length of the neighbouring alkane chain unit.

Adiabatic compressibility data provide an indication of the nature of the interaction between solvent and polymer in these systems.