Thermodynamics of Polymer-Supercritical Solvent Mixtures

摘要

The objectives of this research are to experimentally investigate the high pressure fluid phase behavior of polymer solutions and to characterize the resultant phase behavior using contemporary polymer solution theories. The polymer solutions of interest are of three types: (1) a binary mixture of polymer and organic solvent, (2) a binary mixture of polymer and supercritical fluid (SCF) solvent, and (3) a ternary mixture of polymer, organic solvent, and SCF solvent. There are three goals of the experimental phase of this project. The first goal is to determine the effect of high pressure on the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the polymer-organic solvent mixture at conditions close to the critical point of the organic solvent. The second goal is to study the phase behavior of polymer - SCF solvent mixtures. The final experimental goal is to study the high pressure phase behavior of tenary mixtures consisting of a polymer, an organic solvent, and an SCF solvent.