Prediction of Experimental Measurement Data for High Density Polyethylene and Polypropylene Solubility in Organic Solvents

Abstract

Abstract High density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) solubility in several pure and blend non-polar organic solvents was measured at 365–430 K temperature at atmospheric pressure, with polymer concentration of 0.5–25 g in 100 ml of solvent. The activity coefficients were estimated depending on the experimental solubility results for all the polymer-solvent systems. A non-ideal equation combined with activity coefficient was developed based on the crystallinity. A new correlation equation was attained, which is based on the melting temperature and heat of fusion using SSPS software. These two equations were used to predict the solid-liquid experimental data for the binary system polymer-solvent. The distinction between the experimental and model data was assessed by using mean absolute deviation percentage (MAD %). The non-ideal equation based on crystallinity and the new correlations showed low MAD %, displaying a close match with the experimental data.