Mechanischer Scherabbau von Polymeren in Lösung mittels turbulenter Strömung, 2. Die Abhängigkeit der Abbaugeschwindigkeit von der Polymergesamtkonzentration in guten Lösungsmitteln

Abstract

Mechanical shear degradation of poly(decyl methacrylate), (viscosity average molecular weight in tetrahydrofuran M,, = 1,3 . 1 06, M,/M, = 5) in the thermodynamically good solventtetrahydrofuran has been studied in turbulent flow through a capillary as a function of polymer concentration in the range from 0,22 to 8,9 g/100 cm3. Due to turbulent flow conditions the shear stress, shear rate and shear energy proved to be the same for all concentrations and remained constant during degradation, giving a general insight into mechanism of degradation. The rate of degradation has been followed using molecular weight distribution curves obtained by gel permeation chromatography. The reaction was found to be of first order. Rate constants determined for molecular weights from 3,2 -9,5 . 106 decreased with increasing concentration following a law of the type ki = (K + b -c ) -' , K and b being constants for each molecular weight. Hydrodynamic volumes of polymer molecules have been calculated according to models of Rudin as function of molecular weight and concentration. It can be shown that rate constants of degradation and calculated hydrodynamic volumes are proportional for the whole range of molecular weight and concentrations up to 3,6 g/100 cm3. There is also a rather good proportionality between these rate constants and the volumes of polymer coils predicted by de Gennes. This result is an additional confirmation of the concept that hydrodynamic volume governs shear degradation of polymer solutions. Additional experiments show that this type of concentration dependence is also to be found for other polymers in other solvents.