PVT Behavior of Polystyrene in Presence of CO_2+N_2 Blends

摘要

PVT behavior of polymer/gas mixture is very important for foam manufacturing. However, fully experimental data are still hard to find to study the swelling behavior of polymer in presence of blowing agents (mostly gases) and their blends. In this study, the PVT behavior of polystyrene (PS) in presence of carbon dioxide (CO_2), nitrogen (N_2) and their blends were determined using a laboratory developed PVT apparatus at various temperatures and pressures. It was found that in case of CO_2, swelling of PS increased with increase in pressure and decreased with decrease in temperature. However, in case of N_2, swelling increased linearly with both temperature and pressure. For CO_2+N_2 blend system, only the overall swelling of blend in polymer was measured and it increased linearly with pressure and decreased with temperature.