Effect Of Adsorption On The Viscosity Of Dilute Polymer Solution

Careful measurements of the dilute solution viscosities of polyethylene glycol and polyvinyl alcohol in water were carried out. The reduced viscosities of both polymer solutions plot upward curves at extremely dilute concentration levels similar to the phenomena observed for many polymer solutions in the early 1950's. Upon observation of the changes of the flow times of pure water in and the wall surface wettability of the viscometer after measuring solution viscosity, a view was formed that the observed viscosity abnormality at extremely dilute concentration regions is solely due to the effect of adsorption of polymer chains onto the wall surface of viscometer. A theory of adsorption effect based on the Langmuir isotherms was proposed and a mathematical; analysis for data treatment was performed. The theory could adequately describe the existing viscosity data. It seems necessary to correct the viscosity result of dilute polymer solutions measured by glass capillary viscometer by taking into account the effect of adsorption in all cases.