The Physics of Polymer Dissolution: Modeling Approaches and Experimental Behavior

Abstract

Polymer dissolution is an important phenomenon in polymer science and engineering that has found applications in areas like microlithography, controlled drug delivery, and plastics recycling. This review focuses on the modeling efforts to understand the physics of the dissolution mechanism of glassy polymers. A brief review of the experimentally observed dissolution behavior is presented, thus motivating the modeling of the mechanism of dissolution. The main modeling contributions have been classified into four broad approaches - phenomenological models and Fickian equations, external mass transfer-control based models, stress relaxation models, and anomalous transport models and scaling law-based approaches. Another approach discussed is the appropriate accommodation of molecular theories in a continuum framework. The underlying principles and the important features of each approach are discussed in depth. Details of the important models and their corresponding predictions are provided. Experimental results seem to be qualitatively consistent with the present picture.