Predicting specific volumes of pure polymers and VLE of polymer solutions by group-contribution lattice theory

A generalized group-contribution (GC) scheme with an equation of state (EOS) presented previously by the present authors was extended to the prediction of specific volumes of pure polymers and vapor-liquid equilibria of polymer solutions. The GC-EOS requires only two parameters, representing group size and interaction between groups. A unique feature of the approach is that a single set of group information can be applied to predict both the configurational properties of pure polymers and mixtures in general. The approach was illustratively applied to the prediction of the density of pure polymers, vapor pressures of organic solvents, and phase equilibria of their polymer solutions.