Abstract:
Although in recent years the interaction of water and polymeric compounds, especially textiles and long chain proteins have occasioned much interest, the research in the field has been hampered by the difficulty in obtaining detailed and unambiguous data against which to test theories on the molecular scale.
The object of this thesis is the study of the 6-6 nylon-water system by means of isotope exchange kinetics. More specifically the aim is to answer the three questions:
(l) What is the relationship between the amount of water adsorbed by nylon and the water vapour pressure ?
(2) In what manner is this water adsorbed ?
(3) What are the relevant thermodynamic data ?