OPTICAL STUDIES OF POLYMERS IN HIGH-PRESSURE GAS ENVIRONMENTS

This paper primarily describes the use of a novel optical high pressure cell to examine the microscopic and macroscopic interactions between supercritical carbon dioxide and a polyurethane elastomer. Fourier transform IR spectroscopy was employed to examine the effect of increasing ambient gas pressure on the molecular conformation of the polymer, while a simple visual experimental configuration was used to quantify the corresponding gas-induced volume changes. A simple first-order analysis of the resulting data has shown a correlation between the induced volume changes in the polymer and changes in the polymer's IR spectrum (associated with changes in the hydrogen bonding which occurs in the polymer) at carbon dioxide pressures of up to 16 MPa.