Effect of poly(vinyl alcohol-co-vinyl acetate) copolymer blockiness on the dynamic interfacial tension and dilational viscoelasticity of polymer-anionic surfactant complex at the water-1-chlorobutane interface

Poly(vinyl alcohol-co-vinyl acetate) (PVA) copolymers obtained by partial hydrolysis of poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) are of practical importance for many applications, including emulsion and suspension polymerization processes. Their molecular characteristics have a major influence on the colloidal and interfacial properties. The most significant characteristics are represented by the average degree of hydrolysis D̅H̅, average degree of polymerization D̅P̅w̅ but also by the average acetate sequence length n(VAc)(0) which designates the so-called blockiness. Colloidal aggregates were observed in the aqueous PVA solutions having a D̅H̅ value of 73 mol%. The volume fraction of these aggregates at a given D̅H̅ value is directly correlated to the blockiness. Three PVA samples with identical D̅H̅ and D̅P̅w̅ but different blockiness were examined. By pendant drop and oscillating pendant drop techniques it was shown that the PVA sample having the lowest blockiness and thus the lowest volume fraction of colloidal aggregates has lower interfacial tension and elastic modulus E' values. On the contrary, the corresponding values are highest for PVA sample of higher blockiness. In the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), the colloidal aggregates are disaggregated by complex formation due to the hydrophobic-hydrophobic interactions. The PVA-SDS complex acts as a partial polyelectrolyte that induces the stretching of the chains and thus a reduction of the interface thickness. In this case, the interfacial tension and the elastic modulus both increase with increasing SDS concentration for all three PVA samples and the most significant effect was noticed for the most "blocky" copolymer sample.