Dependence of the adsorption of polymer mixtures from solution on the amount of an adsorbent

Simultaneous competitive adsorption from solutions of mixtures of poly(butyl methacrylate) and polystyrene and adsorption of each component from binary solutions have been studied for three ratios of the adsorbent mass to the solution volume, A/V. It was found that adsorption from both binary and ternary solutions strongly depends on the amount of an adsorbent, adsorption of poly(butyl methacrylate) being preferential. The characteristic adsorption isotherms of both polymers were constructed under conditions of equal equilibrium concentration of each component to estimate the parameters of preferential adsorption and their dependence on the A/V ratio. It was found that the A/V effect plays an important role in adsorption from polymer mixtures and determines the peculiarities of adsorption from polymer mixtures as well as from solution of single polymers. Changing the A/V ratio may be one way to regulate the composition of an adsorption layer consisting of two chemically different polymers. The reasons for the A/V effect are considered in the framework of the concept of the plurality of adsorption equilibria between two chemically different components and between fractions of different molecular mass of each component having various absorbability.