A study of sorption/desorption and diffusion of substituted aromatic probe molecules into semi interpenetrating polymer network of polyurethane/polymethyl methacrylate

The sorption-desorption-resorption-redesorption experiments have been conducted to evaluate the transport behaviour of polyethylene glycol (PEG) based polyurethane/polymethyl methacrylate (PU/PMMA, 50/50) semi interpenetrating polymer network (SIPN) with aromatic probe molecules. Molecular migration depends on the nature of the organic solvent, membrane-solvent interaction, temperature, solubility parameter, molecular volume and free volume available within the polymer matrix. The transport parameters like sorption (S), diffusion (D) and permeation (P) coefficients have been calculated for IPN-aromatic probe molecule systems. Sorption and diffusion results measured at different temperatures viz. 20, 40 and 60 °C are found to follow Fickian mechanism. The liquid concentration profiles in the membranes during sorption and resorption processes have been simulated by solving Fick's diffusion equations and by using numerical method. Equilibrium swelling results have been used to measure the molecular mass between cross links, degree of cross linking and cross link density using Flory-Rehner theory. It is found that the mass uptake values decreased with increase in cross link density during polymer-solvent interactions. The estimated Arrhenius activation energy for diffusion (ED) and permeation (EP) are indicative of nature of liquid and their interaction with membrane. Thermodynamic parameters like change in entropy (ΔS) and enthalpy (ΔH) have been calculated using van't Hoffs equation. The rate of evaporation of liquids have been calculated for desorption and redesorption runs, and these results depend on volatility of solvents.