A Study of the Interaction of Nitrocellulose with Some Solvents and Non-solvents by the Light-Scattering Method

Abstract

A recent paper by Ewart, Roe, Debye and McCartney on the light scattering of polymers dissolved in binary mixtures suggested to us that light scattering studies should yield interesting information regarding the interaction of polymer not only with good solvents but with plasticizers which are solid or have high viscosity and indeed with non-solvents, provided both polymer and the other substance can be dissolved in a common solvent. As was shown by the above mentioned authors the addition of a third component to a polymer solvent mixture should in general cause a change in light scattering even in the absence of association, due to preferential adsorption of one or other of the solvent components by the polymer. If the solvent component adsorbed has the higher refractive index the ratio of polymer concentration to turbidity, in the limit of zero concentration, should decrease. The opposite will be true if the refractive indices are in the reverse order.

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