Latex film formation induced by solvent vapor: A photon transmission study

A photon transmission method was used to study latex film formation induced by organic solvent vapor. Various films with the same latex content were p repared separately from the poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) particles and exposed to vapor of chloroform-heptane mixture in various percentage volume s of chloroform. Transmitted photon intensities, I-tr from these films incr eased in time under vapor exposure. The increase in I-tr is attributed to t he increase in 'crossing density' at the junction surface. The Prager-Tirre ll model was employed to obtained back-and-forth frequency, nu of the repta ting polymer chain during film formation induced by solvent vapor. nu value s were obtained and found to be strongly correlated with the percent of chl oroform in the solvent mixture. At high and low chloroform contents, polyme r chains diffuse according to t(1/2) and t(1/4) laws respectively.