I have already tried to dissolve first my polymer in organic solvents like xylene, toluene or DCM etc, but when i add this solution in my media to be used as carbon source, upon sterilisation my polymer gets solidify.
Hi, what is your medium? Is it an aqueous solution? Polystyrene is insoluble in water. If you dissolve it in an organic phase and add it to the aqueous solution then, it will precipitate - precisely as you observed. The solubility in solvent mixtures could be predicted by Hansen's solubility parameters.
Polyethylene is poorly soluble in any common solvent. How did you manage to dissolve it in toluene? Or did you mean polyethylene glycol (PEG)? PEGs are water soluble, but their solubility depends on molecular weight. For instance, this commercial PEG has a solubility of 630 mg/ml at M = 7000-9000
https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/deepweb/assets/sigmaaldrich/product/documents/215/480/p4463pis.pdf
The longer chains (higher M) you have, the worse solubility you get.
There is no solvent capable to dissolve polyethylene at room temperature. The best solvents for polyethylene are toluene, xylenes and n-alkanes (or their mixture, liquid paraffin, mineral oil) but even with these solvents minimal temperature of stable homogeneous solution is at least 70–100°C (depending on the solvent and density of polyethylene).
Maybe you should use some sort of surface active compound like tween or triton for micelle formation. Because the substances you use are hydrophobic and in an aqueous solution, they will probably be well transferred with the help of micelles.
- Badges
- Science topic