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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Plant Polymer Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #100456
Title: CHARACTERIZATION OF BIODEGRADABLE POLY(HYDROXY ESTER ETHER) IN SOLUTION BY STATIC LIGHT SCATTERING

Author
item CAO, XINGXIANG - BRDC-BRADLEY UNIVERSITY
item Sessa, David
item WOLF, WALTER - RETIRED

Submitted to: Advanced Polymers via Macromolecular Engineering
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/5/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Poly(hydroxy ester ether) (PHEE), a biodegradable thermoplastic developed by the Dow Chemical Company, is a hydroxy-functional polyester derived from diacid and diglycidyl ether. Static light scattering (SLS) was used to characterize PHEE in N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc). Weight-average molecular weight Mw, radius of gyration Rg, and 2**nd-virial coefficient A2 2were obtained by analyzing the SLS data using the Zimm formalism: Mw = 6.6 +/- 0.2 x 10**4 g/mol, Rg = 27.6 +/- 3.5 nm, and A2 = 1.14 +/- 0.176 x 10**-3 mol ml/g**2. Given its Mw value, PHEE's unusually large Rg was attributed to the expanded conformation of the macromolecule in DMAc. The addition of H2O, a plasticizer for PHEE, to the PHEE/DMAc solution greatly affects the solution's property. Upon the addition of H2O, the PHEE macromolecule underwent a conformational change to become more compact, and A2 values decreased with increasing amounts of H2O added.