P-V-T data and their uses

Abstract

Pressure-volume-temperature (P-V-T) investigations represent an underappreciated area of polymer science and engineering. Such data can be obtained for both polymer solids and melts, sometimes in a single experiment (see the next section). Needless to say, such experiments can be conducted also for materials other than polymeric. The main applications of P-V-T results in the field of polymers are:

• 1 prediction of polymer + polymer miscibility;

• 2 prediction of service performance and service life of polymeric materials and components on the basis of free volume concepts;

• 3 evaluation of start and progress of chemical reactions in polymer melts in cases when volume effects accompany the reaction;

• 4 optimization of processing parameters, instead of establishing such parameters by trial and error;

• 5 calculation of the surface tension γ of polymer melts.