Abstract
Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) is an attractive material due to its solubility in aqueous and organic solvents, excellent film
forming capability, and its ability to act as a dispersant in colloidal suspensions and slurries. These characteristics of PVP
have led to its use in a large variety of formulations for pharmaceutics, food, personal care, or coatings, paintings, and
printing applications. It is also widely used as organic additive, i.e. dispersant for ceramics. Regardless of the application,
the control over the polymer behavior in solution is required for an efficient optimization of the formulation. Specifically,
understanding the rheological properties is of paramount interest. Among the different factors that influence the
rheological behavior, viscosity average molecular weight of the polymer is the most relevant.
In this work, PVP polymers with various molecular weights have been characterized regarding their viscosimetric
properties in ethanol. Average molecular weights (Mw, Mn, and Mz) have been determined by gel permeation
chromatography (GPC), and then used in a numerical method to evaluate the viscosity average molecular weight (Mv) via
the Mark-Houwink-Sakurada (MHS) equation. The MHS equation relates the intrinsic viscosity [η] of a polymer in a
given solvent at fixed temperature to the molecular weight. The adopted method also enables for the evaluation of the two
MHS equation parameters (a and K), and of the polydispersity correction factor (qMHS). The intrinsic viscosity, which is
the inherent ability of a solute to increase the viscosity of a solvent, used in the MHS equation, has been evaluated via the
dilution method.
The knowledge obtained from this fundamental study on PVP behavior, has been successfully applied to different case
studies.
Original language | English |
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Publication date | 2015 |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |
Event | 1st Annual World Congress of Smart Materials - Busan, Korea, Republic of Duration: 23 Mar 2015 → 25 Mar 2015 Conference number: 1 |
Conference
Conference | 1st Annual World Congress of Smart Materials |
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Number | 1 |
Country/Territory | Korea, Republic of |
City | Busan |
Period | 23/03/2015 → 25/03/2015 |