Experimental measurements and modeling of solvent activity and surface tension of binary mixtures of polyvinylpyrrolidone in water and ethanol

Abstract

In this paper, the density (ρ), viscosity (η) and surface tension (σ) of solutions of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) with molecular weights of 25000 (K25) and 40000 g mol-1 (K40) in water and ethanol were measured in the temperature range 20–65 °C and at various mass fractions of polymer (0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.45). The solvent activity measurements were performed at 45 and 55 °C. Thereafter, two thermodynamic models for predicting the solvent activity and surface tension of binary polymer mixtures (PVP in water and ethanol) were proposed. The Flory–Huggins theory and Eyring model were employed to calculate the surface tension of the solution and the solvent activity, res­pect­ively. Additionally, the proposed activity model was dependent on the density and viscosity of the solution. Afterwards, the ability of these models at various temperatures and mass fractions were investigated by comparing the results with the experimental data. The results confirmed that, in the investigated temperature range, these models have good accuracy.