V. Crupi et al., Hydroxyl end groups influence in vibrational and transport properties in polymer/monomer solutions: the PEO/EG case, MOLEC PHYS, 99(18), 2001, pp. 1525-1533
A study has been made of vibrational properties in ethylene glycol (EG; H(O
CH2CH2)OH) and EG monomethyl ether (EGmE; CH3(OCH2CH2)OH) in solution toget
her with poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO; H(OCH2CH2)(n)OH) at different concentra
tions, performed by Fourier transform infrared absorbance (FT-IR) spectrosc
opy. The results ae compared with previous viscometry and photon correlatio
n spectroscopy (PCS) studies, using EG dimethyl ether (EGdE; CH3(OCH2CH2)OC
H3) as solvent as well. These homologous systems differ from each other in
the number of OH end groups, in particular two for EG, one for EgmE and zer
o for EGdE. Combining analysis of the vibrational and transport properties
of EG, EGmE and EGdE in solution with PEO over a wide range of concentratio
n made it possible to check the quality (good theta or poor) of these three
different solvents and the role played by the hydrogen bond in the various
solute-solvent interaction mechanisms, resulting in the well known de Genn
es scaling law.