ISSN:
0032-3888
Keywords:
Chemistry
;
Chemical Engineering
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
,
Physics
Notes:
Fluorescence spectroscopy has been employed to monitor the mixing of polymer melts with filler material. The polymer melts were low molecular weight polybutadiene and PBAN, a terpolymer consisting of 85% butadiene, 11% acrylonitrile, 4% acrylic acid, and the filler material was aluminum oxide. To carry out the fluorescence observations, a dopant chromophore was mixed into the polymer melt at very low concentrations, 10-4 to 10-6 molar or 11 to 0.11 ppm by weight. The mixing experiments were carried out using a small laboratory mixer which had glass walls for viewing the fluorescence spectra from the dopant chromophore. Fluctuations in fluorescence intensity were observed to decrease as a function of mixing time indicating that the spatial distribution of the fluorescent chromophores was becoming more uniform. Concerning the mixing of polymer melt and filler, we hypothesize that uniform mixing of ingredients is achieved when fluorescence intensity as a function of time is constant. In order to obtain quantitative support for this hypothesis, we used a fluorescence microscope to measure fluorescence intensity and optical transmittance from microscopic regions of well-mixed and poorly mixed specimens.
Additional Material:
10 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pen.760292405
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