Industry/Academic Cooperative Research: A Fundamental Study of Non-Fickian Transport in Polymers

溶剂在聚合物中的扩散是一个控制过程 在许多产品开发和工艺工程问题。 当聚合物处于或接近玻璃态时，“非Fickian” 扩散是经常看到的。 目前，没有广泛的 非Fickian扩散产品的公认描述 用于工艺或产品开发的可靠计算。 的 因此，拟议研究的广泛目标是提供 这样的描述。 在以前的工作中，一个理论被开发出来，对于非菲克 扩散的“线性”限制，其中干扰从 平衡非常小。 收集了少量的数据 这有力地支持了该描述。 拟议 工作，一个更全面的线性扩散数据集将 使用微分吸附技术收集。 的 将数据与理论进行定量比较， 它的优点和缺点，并使改进，如果 必要 有了健全的线性理论在手，一个可靠的 非线性理论将随之而来。

The diffusion of solvents in polymers is a controlling process in many product development and process engineering problems. When the polymer is in or near the glassy state, "non-Fickian" diffusion is often seen. At present, there is no widely accepted description of non-Fickian diffusion offering reliable calculations for process or product development. The broad goal of the proposed research, therefore, is to provide such a description. In previous work a theory was developed, for non-Fickian diffusion in the "linear" limit, where the disturbance from equilibrium is very small. A modicum of data was collected which strongly supports the description. In the proposed work, a more comprehensive set of linear diffusion data will be collected using the differential sorption technique. The data will be compared quantitatively with the theory to define its strengths and weaknesses and to enable refinements, if necessary. With a sound linear theory in hand, a reliable nonlinear theory will then follow.