Dynamics in polyvinylalcohol-borox based hydrogel doped with carboxyl iron: “Quasielastic neutron scattering study

Abstract

Here we have investigated the dynamics of polyvinyl alcohol-borax doped with carbonyl iron (CI) as studied using quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) technique. Here borax and CI is used as a crosslinker and dopant respectively and D2O used as solvent. The measurements were carried out in the momentum transfer (Q) range of 0.67-1.8 Å−1 using MARX spectrometer at DHRUVA, Mumbai. The considered model suitably described the obtained experimental parameters. This model assumes that the hydrogen atoms of polymer chains diffuse in sphere of spherical volume of fixed radius, a, with diffusion coefficient, D. The obtained values of radius of spherical volume, a=2.04 Å and diffusion coefficient, Ddoped=0.53×10−5 cm2/sec, are found to be less compared to our earlier study on undoped samples. This study suggests that the incorporation of CI restricts the dynamics of PVA polymer chains.