Optical selection of the preferred solvent of a standard polymer for laser light scattering phenomena investigations

As an application of the interferometric technique we used a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) to determine both refractive indices (RIs) and Ri's increments (dn/dc) for a polymer material (standard polystyrene) in different solvents. The solvents we used are benzene, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and dimethylformamide (DMF. The polystyrene is solved in each solvent with different concentrations. The light source we have used is the Argon-ion laser tall lines). This work is a step for the determination of the weight average of molecular weight (WAMW) of standard polystyrene and other related scattering parameters. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.