The properties of adsorbed poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) are discussed with a specific emphasis on the quantification and behavior of tightly-bound polymer segments. The tightly bound polymer segments are those significantly motionally altered because of their attachment to silica. FTIR revealed that the fundamental interaction was hydrogen bonding between the carbonyl groups and surface silanols. Deuterium NMR identified that some PVAc-d<sub>3</sub> was tightly-bound; rigid well beyond the glass transition temperature of the bulk polymer. The amount of tightly-bound polymer was estimated from modulated differential scanning calorimetry. It was found that a common plasticizer for PVAc also did not penetrate the tightly-bound polymer and was therefore ineffective.

Tightly-bound PVAc on silica: Different from bulk polymer?

251st National Meeting (2016)

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