Abstract
Fluorescence quenching was used to investigate the onset and extent of overlap and interpenetration in poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) solutions using polystyrene with a dilute level of anthracene labelling (APS) as a probe. A low, constant concentration of APS was added to solutions varying in PVME concentration. The critical overlap concentration, c*, was taken to be the PVME concentration at which quenching of the probe anthracene-labelled polymer molecules commenced. Variations in probe molecular weight and concentration produced no significant changes in c* or in the rate of decrease in fluorescence intensity above c*, lending credibility to the idea that the APS is simply probing the PVME system. The values of c* [η] from these experiments were found to lie in the range of 0.87-1.7 which agrees with the results from previous studies. The sensitivity of this method to small differences in solvent quality for PVME was also investigated.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2257-2261 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Polymer |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue number | 13 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 1987 |
Funding
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation and the Shell Foundation (fellowship to WHS). We also thank Jeff Byars and Dave Ylitalo for discussion and assistance in these experiments.
Keywords
- c*
- fluorescence quenching
- interpenetration
- poly(vinyl methyl ether)
- polystyrene
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Organic Chemistry
- Polymers and Plastics
- Materials Chemistry