Solvation of polymers as model for solvent effect investigation: proposition of a novel polarity scale

A precise understanding of the polymer solvation effect has been considered crucial to many modern methods, but its dependence on the polarity of the medium is still not entirely established. To more thoroughly address this issue, the swelling degrees of polymers with a great variety of structures, taken as solute-models, were measured and correlated with the polarity of ca. 30 solvent systems. Relevant for any resin-supported methods, a characteristic solvation behavior of each class of polymeric material was detected. Moreover by interpreting the relationship between the large set of solute–solvent interaction data and the most solvent properties known so far, the sum of solvent electron acceptor (AN) and donor (DN) numbers, at a 1:1 proportion was suggested as an alternative and more accurate empirical solvent polarity scale.