(322c) A Synthetic Method for Calculations of Solubilities and Diffusion Coefficients of Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen in Polystyrene

This work presents a synthetic method, based on material balance, to calculate the solubilities of carbon dioxide and nitrogen in polystyrene. In this method, a sealed view cell was used where the interaction of the injected gas and polystyrene was monitored, accompanied with a cathetometer to measure the polymer level at gas-polymer equilibrium state for solubility calculations. The experiments were conducted at high pressures within the range of 50 bars (5MPa) to 170 bars (17MPa) and at high temperatures within the range of 170oC (443.15K) and 270oC (543.15K). The effects of pressure and temperature on the gas solubility in polystyrene were studied. Moreover, the Henry’s constants and the diffusion coefficients were determined for studied gases.