Transitiometric Analysis of Pressure Effects on Various Phase Transitions

Abstract

A scanning transitiometer has been used in investigations of 1st and 2nd order phase transformations in polymers. It was demonstrated taking as an example fusion of polyethylene at 200 MPa with a temperature scan as inducing variable that by recording simultaneously the rate of heat exchange and the rate of volume variations it is possible to determine in a single experiment the pressure derivative of temperature of this 1st order phase transition. For phase transformations similar to the 2nd order transitions the transitiometric analysis permits simultaneous measurements of pairs of thermodynamic derivatives which permit determination of pressure effects according to the Ehrenfest equations. For the glass transition in polystyrene at high pressures the pressure effect was similar independently of the pair of thermodynamic derivatives used (heat capacity and thermal expansivity or compressibility and thermal expansibility).