An Acoustic Study of the Selective Absorption of Vapors by Microporous Polymer Films

The mechanism of diffusion and absorption of analyte molecules by polymer films containing microcavities with selective absorption centers was studied. A system of partial differential equations describing the absorption-diffusion process was constructed and an algorithm for its solution was developed. The absorption-desorption of analytes by films of molecularly imprinted polymers was experimentally studied using surface acoustic waves. The observed time dependences of phase shifts of surface acoustic waves caused by sorption processes were approximated by theoretical curves calculated with the use of optimized kinetic parameter values.