The Raman spectra of aqueous solutions of CH3(OCH2CH2)mOCH3 (m = 1−4) were measured for mole fractions down to 0.005. The spectral observation for the compounds with m ≥ 2 indicates that, on addition of water, the POE chain progressively prefers the gauche conformation for the OCH2–CH2O segment at the first stage, but this direction of the conformational preference is reversed for concentrations lower than a particular solution composition. This anomalous conformational behavior is suggestive of a new structural aspect of the POE–water system.

No abstract