LATTICE FLUID THEORY AND INVERSE GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY IN THE ANALYSIS OF POLYMER-POLYMER INTERACTIONS

In this work, inverse gas chromatography has been used to calculate interaction energy densities of two polymer blends: poly(epichlorohydrin) (PECH)/poly(methyl acrylate) (PMA) and poly(hydroxy ether of Bisphenol A) (phenoxy, PH)/poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) at different temperatures. An approach based on the lattice fluid theory has been used in an attempt to eliminate the well-known probe dependence of the thermodynamic parameters calculated by IGC. In the two polymer blends under study, the above mentioned data analysis seems to be unable to remove the probe dependence. However, it allows the calculation of an average characteristic interaction energy density Delta P-* which can be used in the calculation of the interaction energy density B, its enthalpic and entropic components, and the interaction energy density related to the second derivative of the free energy, B-sc. The thermodynamic properties so calculated are in good agreement with those obtained from a phenomenological and simpler data analysis.