Swelling Kinetics of Linseed Oil-Based Polymers

Kinetics of swelling and sorption behavior of copolymers (based on linseed oil, styrene, divinylbenzene, and acrylic acid via cationic and thermal polymerization) is Studied in tetrahydrofuran (THF) at different temperatures. The values of n in the transport equation are found to be below 0.4, showing non-Fickian or pseudo-Fickian transport in the polymers. The dependence of diffusion coefficient on the composition and temperature has also been Studied for the linseed oil-based polymers. The diffusion coefficient in cationic samples decreases with an increase in the oil contents in the samples. In case of thermal samples, the diffusion coefficient first increases up to 30%,) oil contents and then decreases. The diffusion coefficient decreases with an increase in temperature for all of the linseed oil polymer samples. The sorption coefficient increases with an increase in the oil contents for all samples. The crosslink density (calculated from the THF swelling) ranges from 20.16 to 92.34 x 10(6) mol/cm(3) for cationic samples and 20.62 to 86.01 x 10(6) mol/cm(3) for thermal samples. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 111: 1816-1827, 2009