The Swelling of Unfilled and Highly Filled Polymers
Abstract The swelling of elastomers in solvents is a useful method for determining the effective crosslinking of the polymeric structure. However, it is now shown that this method may be applied satisfactorily to highly filled polymers. A unique method has been devised for the accurate measurement of the swelling ratio of the gel phase of the filled polymers. The method is based on the observation that the binder-filler bond, for most filler particles, releases on swelling. The binder around the particle swells, leaving a hollow pocket which becomes filled with solvent. Corrections for this “waste” solvent lead to the equations from which the swelling of the polymer can be calculated. Experimental verification is given for several filled systems.