Determination of solvent/polymer interaction parameters of moderately concentrated polymer solutions by vapor pressure osmometry

The paper describes the application of vapor pressure osmometry (VPO) to determine solvent/polymer interaction parameters for various polymer solutions containing high-molecular weight polymers in the semi-diluted concentration range. The theoretical basis for the data evaluation is the Flory-Huggins (FH) model and a virial expansion up to the third virial term. For validation already well characterized polymer/solvent systems poly(vinylpyrrolidone)/water, polysulfone/N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), and poly(ether sulfone)/DMF were investigated. In the second part interaction parameters of poly(ether imide) (PEI) in solvents with technical relevance for membrane formation (DMF, N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc)) were examined at different concentrations and temperatures. The results document that VPO is a fast and promising method for characterization of semi-diluted polymer solutions containing polymers with higher molecular weight. Results confirm the decrease of solvent power for PEI in the series: NMP > DMAc > DMF.