Modification of the glass transitions of polymers by high-pressure gas solubility

Abstract

The newly developed VW-pVT technique for simultaneously measuring the solubility of a gas in a polymer and the concomitant change of volume of the polymer has been used to estimate the solubilities of N2, CO2, and two hydrofluorocarbons, HFC-134a and HFC-152a, in polystyrene (PS). In conjunction with these solubility data, Chow’s model has been used to calculate the change of the glass-transition temperature of the polymer resulting from gas sorption. The performance of this model for predicting the glass-transition temperature shift is then discussed.