Pulsed NMR Study of Network Formation in the Course of Bulk Polymerization of Methyl Acrylate

Abstract

Pulsed NMR can be used to elucidate certain aspects of the polymer structure and those properties that are affected by the molecular mobility. The spin-spin relaxation time (T2), which is primarily determined by the relatively slow motion of the polymer chain in the fluid state, was found to be useful for investigating the polymer structural order, chain entanglement and their presence as permanent cross-links. 1-3 Short polymer chains in a liquid state or at high temperature in the molten state will give rise to a single exponential T2 decay. When the molecular weight exceeds a critical value, the spin-spin relaxation deviates from the single exponential behavior. This is explained by the presence of higher molecular weights of molecular entanglements sufficient in number to provide a three dimensional network. 4 The entanglement of a polymer chain restricts the chain mobility. Since this long-range chain motion affects the NMR relaxation times, the studying T2 can provide a sensitive probe with which to investigate the effect of intermolecular coupling on the mobility.Most of molecular motion studies, however, have focused on polymers in a static state, such as cross-linked rubbers, 5 polymer melts with non-disperse molecular weight. 3 From a molecular motional point of view, bulk polymerization is also one of the most interesting targets for pulsed NMR spectroscopy. The reaction is followed by a liquid-to-solid transition accompanied by a change in the polymer structure, the molecular weight distribution and the density. The molecular motion during the course of the reaction is, therefore, continuously influenced particularly by the propagation process, where the entanglement occurs along with a rapid increase in the degree of polymerization. Under such circumstances, samples consist of a mixture of high-polymer, low-molecular weight polymer, oligomers, and a residual monomer where high molecular weight entangled (network structure) molecules co-exist with low molecular weight "free molecules". The constituents' fractions also continuously change during the reaction. In terms of the molecular motion, studying the network formation by a pulsed NMR method in a kinetic process, such as bulk polymerization, is therefore of interest and worth investigating as well as that by the gravimetric method, 6-9 because the pulsed NMR method provides such a different perspective on the kinetic process of the reaction in real time.In the present work, the proton spin-spin relaxation time of poly(methyl acrylate) (PMA) was measured in order to study network formation as a function of the reaction time at various temperatures by the pulsed NMR method. The results were considered in conjunction with that of 13 C DD/MAS NMR measurements and the polymer yield. ExperimentalPulsed NMR measurements were carried out with a JEOL Mu-25 spectrometer operating at a frequency of 25 MHz. The proton spin-spin relaxation time (T2) was obtained from the free induction decay (FID), which follows a 90˚ pulse. 10 The pulse interval time was 10 s...

A Time-Domain NMR Study of the State of Water in Wet Granules with Different Fillers and Its Contribution to the Wet Granulation Process and to the Characteristics of Granules

“…TD-NMR has been used in various research fields, in particular the chemical, [12][13][14] food, [15][16][17] plant, 18,19) and material science fields. [20][21][22] However, to date, its application to pharmaceutical research has been limited. 10,11,23) Recently, we have demonstrated the usefulness of TD-NMR for the evaluation of physicochemical properties of pharmaceuticals.…”

Pulsed NMR Study of the Curing Process of Epoxy Resin

“…12 Since this relatively short-range chain motion affects the NMR relaxation times, studying T1 and T2 can provide a sensitive probe by which to investigate the effect of intermolecular coupling on the mobility, such a kinetic process, like a bulk polymerization or the curing process of epoxy resin. [15][16][17][18] In the present work, we demonstrated that pulsed NMR was sufficiently sensitive to changes in the material properties of epoxy resin and could be used for a non-destructive state assessment of the curing process of epoxy resin. Our results in this study also substantiate the perspective to conduct a hardening process or lifetime predictions of epoxy resin, or other polymers in situ in real time on the basis of laboratory reference data.…”

“…These kinetic behaviors of the components were also observed in a bulk polymerization, where a gel effect generally occurs. [15][16][17][18] PS observed in the polymerization is, therefore, associated with the existence of polymer chain entanglements, of which the motion is severely restricted (~20 ms). The time course of these components explains in regard to the proton motion how the curing process with a gel effect proceeds by the formation of three dimensional polymer chain networks.…”

A new solvent polymeric membrane electrode incorporating poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) as a polymer

“…18 Linear polymers in a viscous state have two types of relatively long T 2 relaxation times. 19 The shorter T 2 relaxation time is considered to arise from a relatively less mobile region of the entanglement. Each FID signal of the PVC-PIPA-PVC potentiometric polymeric membrane at 25 (Fig.…”

“…3b) consisted of two kinds of T 2 , i.e., T 2M (intermediate) and T 2L (long). 19 The T 2M and T 2L values and their respective fractions F M and F L are summarized in Table 2. By heating from 25 to 40 C, the T 2M value decreased from 156 mm to 123 mm with an increase in the F M value.…”