Abstract:
Polyethylene glycol (PEG), a low toxicity and stable water-soluble polymer compound, is widely used as the auxiliary material, solvent, additive and modifier. Its behavior in aqueous solution has been studied through spectroscopy, chromatograph, molecular simulation and many other experiments, but the study of structures and interactions in PEG/alcohol/water solution is scarce, which has important sigficance for the application of PEG. In this paper, the properties of a series of PEG/2-butoxyethanol (2BE)/water solutions were studied by measuring dynamic light scattering, resonance light scattering, density and heat capacity. The particle size distribution and resonance light scattering intensity of 2BE/H
2O and PEG/2BE/H
2O solutions determined by light scattering experiments showed that 2BE content affected the aggregation structures and interactions in solutions, and the addition of PEG molecules destroied and recombined the 2BE/H
2O association aggregates and the 2BE self-association aggregates, which increased the sizes of the aggregates. The apparent molar volume of infinite dilution (
V_\varPhi ,\rmPEG^0), the interaction parameter (
SV) and the apparent molar heat capacity (
CΦ,PEG) for PEG chain in 2BE/H
2O mixed solvents were deduced from the data of density and heat capacity at 25 ℃.
V_\varPhi ,\rmPEG^0 reached the minimum value at
x2BE=0.0242;
SV increased first, then decreased and finally increased again with the increase of
x2BE, and changed from the negative to the positive at
x2BE=0.0167, and had a positive maximum at
x2BE=0.0242;
CΦ,PEG decreased with the increase of
x2BE, but the decrease became not obvious when
x2BE>0.0167. The above characteristic changes of macroscopic thermodynamic variables were consistent with the structures and interactions in the solutions.