Effect of Solute‐Polymer Interactions on Sorption and Diffusion in Polyacrylamide Gels

Abstract

Solute‐polymer interactions can exert a large effect on selective sorption and permeation in polyacrylamide (PAAm) gels. In order to investigate this effect, three probe polyelectrolytes, sodium polystyrene sulphonate (PSS), polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and sulfonated polyaniline (SPANI), were chosen as probe species in sorption, release, and permeation experiments in PAAm gels. For PAAm gels with trapped SPANI, FTIR spectroscopy has confirmed that there exists hydrogen‐bonding between SPANI and PAAm. In addition, rigid‐chain SPANI has an intense tendency to aggregate; it is likely that the effective chains of the PAAm matrices are enwrapped in these aggregates. Hydrogen‐bonding and aggregation resulted in that the release kinetics of SPANI from PAAm gels exhibited a remarkable “lag time”, as long as 100 h (lag period means that in the initial period there is no detectable SPANI released from PAAm gels.), the releasing rate of SPANI was very slow, and the selective sorption of SPANI in PAAm gels was extremely high. On the other hand, the release and permeation of PVP and PSS through PAAm gels were much faster than SPANI, and the selective sorption were close to unity. From these facts it could be deduced that there is no or only weak interaction between PAAm and PSS (or PVP). Adding of concentrated support electrolyte resulted in decrease of the release rate and a two‐magnitude decrease of the calculated diffusion coefficients of PSS; the effect of support electrolyte on release and permeation of PSS was partly attributed to the electrostatic interaction.