Determination of thermodynamic and transport properties of solvents and non solvents in poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide)

Thermodynamic properties, partition coefficient, and diffusion coefficients of the various solvents (acetone, dichloromethane, trichloromethane, ethyl acetate, ethyl alcohol, tetrahydrofuran, and water) in poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) at infinite dilution of the solvent have been determined by inverse gas chromatography (IGC). In IGC method, which is based on the characteristic equilibrium partitioning of a solute between a mobile phase and a stationary phase, a small pulse of solvent is introduced into the column and by the aid of retention volume of the solvent, several polymer solvent interaction properties, namely retention volume (V-g), infinitely dilute weight fraction activity coefficient (Omega(infinity)(1)), Flory-Huggins interaction parameter (chi), and solubility parameters of the polymer (delta(infinity)(2)) can be determined. The thermodynamic results indi cated that trichloromethane and dichloromethane were the most suitable solvents among all the solvents studied for PLGA. The partition (K) and diffusion coefficients (D-p) of various solvents at infinite dilution of the solvent were calculated by using the model developed by Pawlisch et al. (Macromolecules 1987, 20, 1564). The optimum K and D-P values that best fit the data were found and the model predicted experimental data very well. So IGC method is a powerful tool for the determination of thermodynamic and diffusion properties of solvent in polymer at infinite dilution of the solvent. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.