How to measure concentration (g of polymer/ g of mixture) of a polymer from mixture of polymers and ceramic materials?
I have no background in polymer, hence I am not sure whether (mol of polymer/ mol of mixture) would work as the molecular weight of polymer differs.
If you have a mixture of inorganic (ceramic) material and organic (polymer) then you could do an ash. Weigh the mix then heat it to about 600˚C for approximately an hour cool and re weigh. The polymer will have degraded and evaporated leaving only the ceramic so you can calculate the g% polymer.
Ash is a simple experiment usually used to determine inorganic content in polymer mixes such as adhesives and coatings.
Dear all, what is the morphology of the mixture ? Is it a ceramic power dispersed in a polymer Matrix? If so, solvent extraction of the polymer is the simplest way, by soxhlet if solvation is achievable at high temperature. More details are needed to get a focus picture of the situation. My Regards
There are plenty of ways to determine the composition but this depends on the polymer and the techniques, which you have access to.
The answers of Peter Bedwell and Abdelkader BOUAZIZ work generally very well.
However, there are exceptions like silicone based polymers, which would leave some inorganic material when you burn the polymer. The extraction works well unless you have some crosslinked material (i.e. some resin filled with the ceramics) or some polymer like polyethylene or polypropylene, which is not easily soluble.
With a background of a chemist, I like NMR-spectroscopy and would simply add some substance to you polymer mixture and measure an NMR spectrum. From the integrals of characteristic peaks, you can calculate the amount the polymer or ceramic respectively.
Example:
If your add Triphenylmethane to some PMMA+ceramic, you can compare the integrals of the aromatic protons (Triphenylmethane) and the ester group of your PMMA.
This could also work for crosslinked materials and you may also detect some other additives.
I think g of polymer / g of mixture is more reasonable than mol of polymer/ mol of mixture, because you would need the molecular weight of the polymer to obtain the mol of it (via determining its weight first), there is a molecualr weight distribution for polymers and it's hard to define the mol of the mixture.
Dear Dr. Abdelkader BOUAZIZ,
Precisely I am thinking about the mixture used to make supercapacitor/battery electrodes: (say)NiO/PVDF/carbon black of some kind.
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