Study of polymer dynamics and conformation using solid state NMR advanced techniques (exchange and double quantum).

Author(s)

Fábio Becker Guedes

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Carlos.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC/BT)
• Defense date: 2001-11-29

Examining board members

Tito Jose Bonagamba; Oswaldo Baffa Filho; Márcio Francisco Colombo; Otaciro Rangel Nascimento; Jose Daniel Figueroa Villar

• Advisor: Tito Jose Bonagamba

Abstract

This work is based on the study of dynamics and conformation of solid-state polymers, using NMR modern techniques. For the quantitative study of slow sidegroup dynamics in a series of poly(alkyl methacrylate)s and other of poly(&#945-substituted acrylate)s with varying sidegroup sizes two new 13C exchange techniques were used: centerband-only detection of exchange (CODEX) and pure exchange (PUREX). Flips and small-angle motions of the ester groups associated with the p-relaxation are observed distinctly, and the fraction of slowly flipping groups has been measured with 3% precision. A decreasing in these values occurs growing the sidegroup size. In PMMA, 34% of sidegroups flip, while the fraction is c.a. 10% in PcHMA around room temperature. In PMAA, no slow sidegroup flips are detected. In PMMA, the flipping fraction is temperature-independent between 25&#176C and 96&#176C, while in PEMA, PiBMA, and PcHMA it increases continuously between room temperature and Tg (from 31 to 80% for PEMA). Backbone CH2 CODEX data confirm the results obtained for the main chain movements. Flip-independent small amplitude motions (&#60 5&#176) are also observed. Besides, it is noticed that in some poly(&#945 -substituted acrylate)s the a sidegroup size has influence in the fraction of slowly flipping ester groups at 25&#176C. For the study of polymers conformation Double Quantum NMR experiments were used, for torsion angles determination between 13C-13C pairs through the polymer chain. Experiments for two standards 13C labeled samples: poly(ethy1ene oxide) - (PEO) and poly(ethy1ene teraftalate) - (PET) were performed, with and without homonuclear decoupling (13C-13C), in a Varian Inova 400 spectrometer. (AU)