Sorption prehistory: A way of studying the properties of impurities in multicomponent polymer systems

Abstract

In industrial synthesis of stereoregular polymers, substances such as multicomponent catalysts are known to contaminate a final product, thus becoming impurities to be removed from a polymer. Here, we show that liquid sorbates, when added to impurities inside a polymer, can be used as probes in studying the polymer’s prehistory of sorption and mass transfer. The main features of this process are described and discussed.