Behavior of bound water in polyethylene oxide studied by DSC and high-frequency spectroscopy

Measurements of DSC, NMR and high-frequency spectroscopy have been done on PEO-H2O and PEO-H2O-HQ mixed systems. DSC measurements show that water molecules contained in PEO are divided roughly into two species: freezable water and non-freezable water. By 1H-NMR measurements, PEO and H2O protons show an absorption peak around 3.6 ppm and 4.5 ppm, respectively. All the PEO-H2O samples containing H2O show NMR absorption signals, suggesting the existence of movable H2O. Samples with H2O molar ratio over 0.5, show one absorption peak of H2O protons, and more than two peaks of PEO. The results from DSC and NMR measurements show that the bound state of H2O in PEO, as well as the mobility of PEO itself, varies according to the water content in PEO-H2O samples. On the other hand, DSC measurements give the result that PEO-H2O-HQ systems can be considered as homogeneous so long as the content of H2O and/or HQ is not so high. Furthermore, the water molecules in the system exist as bound water. Results of high-frequency spectroscopic measurements for the PEO-H2O and PEO-H2O-HQ systems show good agreement with those of DSC and NMR measurements.