How Can NMR Spectroscopy Characterize Block Copolymers?
Copolymers have become increasingly popular in recent years. This is because of their commercial relevance now that polymers with engineered properties have been developed to meet a wide variety of industry needs.
Polymers with engineered properties have been used for many different things. Acrylonitrile butadiene (ABS) is used for thermoplastics whereas styrene-butadiene (PS-PB) is used for car tires. Other engineered copolymers are used to improve solubility, control wetting properties, modify glass transition temperature, reduce crystallinity, and improve mechanical properties.
How can NMR spectroscopy help with characterizing polymer parameters?
NMR spectroscopy is one of the top analytical methods in modern chemistry. It's also a proven analytical technique that's valuable in the characterization of fundamental polymer parameters.
Using a benchtop NMR spectrometer in just one experiment lets you observe the reaction, completion, and uniformity of monomers. You can also easily observe any unreacted monomers. This is because of the defined and resolved lines in the broad polymeric resonances.
Using a benchtop NMR spectrometer, you can also quantify relative composition using the predefined integral regions and quantify relative percentages of structural isomers. You can observe stereoisomers and tacticity, determine molecule number and weight, and determine the polydispersity index (PDI).
Benchtop spectrometers for polymer characterization
Traditional NMR systems have been used to perform polymer characterization for years. However, it's now possible to perform polymer characterization using benchtop NMR spectrometers, too.
Benchtop NMR spectrometers are affordable, portable, and lightweight. This makes them especially great for boosting analytical performance and workflow efficiency.
NMR spectrometers range from 60 MHz to 100 MHz when they use electromagnets or permanent magnets. Nanalysis' NMReady-60 is a high-resolution 60 MHz spectrometer. It's capable of generating statistically-equivalent results to a traditional NMR spectrometer. But unlike a high field superconducting NMR spectrometer, NMReady-60 is portable, robust, easy to use, and low maintenance.
On the NMReady-60, you can expect reaction completeness, relative composition, and the radio of structural isomers to be characterized in minutes. But polymer characterization is just one of many benchtop NMR spectrometer applications the NMReady-60 is capable of being used for.
Interested in using NMReady-60 for your own polymer characterization or for another industry application? Contact Nanalysis today for more information on NMReady-60 and how you can use a benchtop NMR spectrometer in your everyday workflow.