Polymer-solvent complexes and intercalates prepared under various conditions

The relevancy of temperature-composition phase diagrams for the study of polymer-solvent complexes and intercalates is discussed. In particular the use of Tamman's diagrams for determining the stoichiometric composition is evaluated. Examples of the validity of this approach are taken from isotactic or syndiotactic polystyrene compounds. Also, the effect of the path followed for reaching a T, C coordinate is examined. It is shown that cooling hot, homogeneous solutions at composition C or allowing solvent to diffuse in a solid polymer matrix at temperature T yields basically the same thermal behaviour.