Phase Equilibrium of Organic Solvents in Polybutadiene: A Capillary-Column Inverse Gas Chromatography Study

The capillary-column inverse gas chromatography (CCIGC) at infinite dilution of solvent has been used to determine diffusivity and partition coefficients of polymer-solvent systems in polybutadiene (PBD, 98% cis). Experiments were performed at 45, 60 and 80°C. Partition coefficients were used to determine the following thermodynamics parameters: infinitely dilute weight fraction activity coefficients and Flory–Huggins interaction parameters. The results indicated that ethylbenzene is the most suitable solvent for polybutadiene. The calculated weight-fraction activity coefficient data were compared to the prediction of the group contribution, lattice-fluid equation of state GCLF-EoS and the Uniquac Functional-group Activity Coefficient (UNIFAC) free volume models.