C. Kwag et al., Effects of dissolved gas on viscoelastic scaling and glass transition temperature of polystyrene melts, IND ENG RES, 40(14), 2001, pp. 3048-3052
The free volume theory of Gerhardt et al.(1) (J. Polym. Sci. B: Polym. Phys
. 1998, 36, 1911) is used to predict viscoelastic scaling factors describin
g the effect of dissolved gas content on the viscosity curves of polystyren
e melts swollen with dissolved carbon dioxide and dissolved 1,1-difluoroeth
ane. The predictions of the theory are compared to viscoelastic scaling fac
tors measured by Kwag et al.(2) (J. Polym. Sci. B: Polym. Phys. 1999, 37, 2
771) for each system at 150 and 175 degreesC, at concentrations up to 10 wt
% of dissolved gas, and pressures ranging up to 22 MPa. The agreement betw
een the theory and experiments is very good for the polystyrene-CO2 system
but only fair for the polystyrene-1,1-difluoroethane system. The experiment
al viscoelastic scaling factor values are also interpreted with the WLF equ
ation to estimate the change in the underlying glass transition temperature
s of the polystyrene-gas mixtures. The glass transition temperatures estima
ted from these rheological data are in very good agreement with values dire
ctly measured for polystyrene-CO2 mixtures and with the theory of Condo et
al.(3) (Macromolecules 1992, 25, 6119).