Confinement effects in the dynamic properties of liquid polymers within porous media: a light scattering study

The reorientational dynamics of polymers passing from the monomers (ethylen e glycol and propylene glycol) to corresponding oligomers (poly(propylene g lycols)) or to homologous systems (ethylene glycol monomethyl ether and eth ylene glycol dimethyl ether), in the bulk state and confined in a sol-gel p orous glass with 25 Angstrom pores, has been investigated by means of Rayle igh wing scattering, at low frequencies. The goal was to study the influenc e of the chain length and of the physical and chemical traps, connected to the surface interactions and geometric restrictions respectively, on the mo bility of the studied H-bonded liquids. This was possible because of the ca pability of preventing the interactions with the surfaces of the confining matrix that contain the active silanol groups (Si-OH).