8th Liquid Matter Conference September 6-10, 2011 Wien, Austria ...

P4.4Fri 911:10-14:00Online monitoring of ultrasonic degradation of poly(sodium styrene sulfonate)Huceste Catalgil-Giz, 1 Gokce Onbirler, 2 Ali Akyuz, 2 and Ahmet Giz 21 Istanbul Technical University, Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi, Maslak 34469, Istanbul,Turkey2 Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, TurkeyUltrasonic polymer degradation is a unique process which differs from thermal or photochemicaldegradation. In the ultrasonic degradation, chain scission occurs preferentially around the middleof the chain and the broken chain has exactly the same chemical structure as the mother chain. Ultrasonicdegradation is applied to the reduction of polydispersity, synthesis of block copolymers, togenerate functional polymers and formation of polymer or polyelectrolyte nanoparticles. Solventproperties have a vital role in ultrasonic polymer degradation because the hydrodynamic forceson polymer chains depend on the conformation of polymer chains in solvent. Polyelectrolyteshave the unique property that their viscosity, sedimentation and diffusion are strongly influencedby charge effects and can be controlled by modifying the pH and the ionic strength of the solution.Online methods obtain many points during experiments and yields insights on the finerdetails of the experiments. Automatic continuous online monitoring of polymerization (ACOMP)is a method developed for monitoring polymerization and copolymerization reactions and timedependent processes like degradation, diffusion, absorption. In this work ultrasonic degradation ofa linear polyelectrolyte poly ( sodium styrene sulfonate) is monitored viscometrically at differentpH values, from pH 3 to pH 9 by ACOMP. Scission rates and final molecular weights are foundand results show that scission is more effective at higher pH values. [1]A. Akyuz, A. Giz, H.Catalgil-Giz, Macromol. Symp. 275-276, 112-119, 2009. [2]A Akyuz, H. Catalgil-Giz, A. T. Giz,Macromol. Chem. Phys. 209, 801-809, 2008. [3]A. M. Alb, A. Paril, H. Catalgil-Giz, A. Giz, WFReed, J Phys. Chem. B, 111, 8560, 2007.4