Total and preferential sorption in polar ternary systems

Abstract

In this paper we have applied the Flory–Huggins and Flory–Prigogine theories to several polar ternary systems of the type polymer–liquid 1–liquid 2. From light scattering and viscosity measurements we have calculated several experimental parameters necessary to calculate the total sorption function, Y, and preferential sorption coefficient, λ.

We have tested the Flory–Huggins and Flory–Prigogine theories using the following four systems PMMA–1,2-dichloroethane–acetonitrile, PMMA–1,2-dichloroethane–ethyl acetate, PMMA–dimethylformamide–acetonitrile and PMMA–dimethylformamide–ethyl acetate. We have found that the Flory–Prigogine theory leads to a better description of the sorption phenomena. For most of the investigated systems, we have found that the value of the surface to volume ratio, S₃, for PMMA that best fits the theoretical and experimental data is 0.38 × 10⁸ cm^–1. However, it is necessary to investigate a higher number of ternary systems in order to obtain more accurate conclusions.