Swelling and impregnation of polystyrene using supercritical carbon dioxide

Swelling of polystyrene (PS) in supercritical carbon dioxide was studied in situ. Experiments were carried out in a high-pressure cell furnished with an optical channel. This allowed to measure the dynamics of diffusion front propagation in the polymer samples during the swelling process by the use of an optical microscope supplied with a digital video camera. The measurements of this dynamics provided information about diffusion coefficients of CO2 molecules in PS. Diffusion coefficients and equilibrium sorption degrees of the PS samples were also calculated by the use of a gravimetric method. The data were compared with the results of in situ technique. Impregnation of PS films wish ethyl-2-cyano-3(4'-dimethylaminophenyl)acrylate as a model substance for UV-filters and electrographic materials was carried out. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.