Dielectric dispersion in dilute cellulose acetate solutions

Previous investigations have revealed that some polymer solutions exhibit dielectric dispersion (variation of the dielectric constant with frequency) which is apparently related in some way to the molecular weight of the polymer (1) (2) (3). One of these investigations (1) was carried out on solutions to cellulose acetate in dioxane. It was found that the change in dielectric constant was so small that rather concentrated solutions had to be used in order to obtain reproducible results. The possibility of intermolecular interactions in concentrated solutions made dilute solution measurements desirable. Consequently, the object of the present investigation was to carry out such measurements with sufficient precision to define the shape of the dielectric dispersion curve over the necessary frequency range.

The fundamental difficulty was that the change in dielectric constant of a solution containing less than 1% cellulose acetate was only about one part in five hundred or less in a frequency range of about three decades. The course ot such a small change is difficult to detect over such a wide band of frequencies. Capacitance bridges; which are very good for making measurements at a single frequency, particularly in the range of frequencies under investigation; were commercially available. However, bridges have certain inherent disadvantages which make difficult the coverage of such a wide band of frequencies with the necessary precision. The use of ordinary resonance methods was desirable, but they are limited by the practical sizes of the components to frequencies well above the lowest frequencies which were expected to be encountered. As a result of these limitations, a modified resonance procedure was adopted. A resistance-capacitance oscillator was substituted for the more conventional inductance-capacitance circuits. Null indications were obtained by substituting a frequency counting system of great precision for the "zero beat" method.

It had been found earlier that the critical frequency was related to the weight average molecular weight of the polymer sample, the critical frequency being defined as the frequency at which the dispersion was 0.5. Based on this it seemed reasonable to assume that the dielectric dispersion curve might be related in some way to the molecular weight distribution curve in the case of a polydisperse sample. An attempt was thus made to obtain the dielectric dispersion curve in as much detail as possible, since this served the two-fold purpose of permitting conclusions to be drawn concerning the validity of the molecular weight relationship in dilute solutions and giving an indication of any influence of the molecular weight distribution on the dielectric dispersion.

Apparatus was developed which gave a precision of 0.01 uuf in a total of about 250 uuf. This provided the means of measurement. Measurements were made on several fractions and three artificial blends.

The results of measurements on fractions indicated that the form of the critical frequency-molecular weight relationship determined earlier (1) was correct. The dispersion curves obtained for the three blends of varying width indicated that the slope of the dispersion curve at the critical frequency decreased as the width of the blend was increased. This was the only indication of an influence of the width of the distribution on the dispersion curve. It was noted, however, that the slopes of the dispersion curves for the fractions were less than those for the narrowest blend in several cases. The most reasonable explanation of this observation seems to be that the fractions and blends have much wider distributions than was believed. It is also possible that chain flexibility might be a complicating factor.

(1) Scherer, P. P., Levi, D. W., and Hawkins, M. C.: J. Polymer Sci., 24, 19 (1957)

(2) Scherer, P. C., Hawkins, M.C., and Levi, D. W.: J. Polymer Sci., 31, 105 (1958)

(3) Scherer, P. C., Hawkins, M. C., and Levi, D. W.: J. Polymer Sci., 37, 369 (1959)