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Determination of viscosities of alcohols, fatty oils, and mineral oils based on diffusion rates of fluids in a fluorescent microporous conjugated polymer film

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Abstract

A polydiphenylacetylene derivative containing a trimethylsilyl group in one of the two side phenyl rings (PDPA-C1) was examined for use in a film-type solid-state sensor to determine the viscosity of various fluids, such as alcohols, fatty oils, and mineral oils. The fluids readily diffused into the polymer film upon contact and, simultaneously, the fluorescence (FL) emission increased with time to reach a FL enhancing equilibrium. The FL enhancing rate decreased as the viscosity of the fluids increased. The relationship between the time to reach the FL enhancing equilibrium (teq, FL) and the viscosity of each fluid (η) was captured well by a modified Forster–Hoffmann equation, log teq, FL = C + x log η. The slope (x) values indicate the viscosity sensitivities of the PDPA-C1 film for the fluids, which were determined to be 1.02 for alcohols, 4.15 for fatty oils, and 0.63 for mineral oils. This sensing process yielded not only significantly higher viscosity sensitivities but also higher reproducibility than the conventional sensing process based on the measurement of FL intensity. The typical Forster–Hoffmann equation did not capture the relationship between the probe FL intensity and the fluid viscosity well. The unknown viscosities of commercial oils were identified exactly using the modified Forster–Hoffmann equation as a calibration curve.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Basic Science Research Program of National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grants funded by the Korea government (MEST) (2020R1A2C1010980).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Polymeric Nanomaterials Laboratory, School of Applied Chemical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, 1370 Sankyuk-dong, Buk-ku, Daegu, 702-701, Korea

    Young-Ghil Choi, Young-Jae Jin, Jineun Lee & Giseop Kwak

  2. Reliability Assessment Center for Chemical Materials, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), 141 Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-600, Korea

    Young-Jae Jin & Wang-Eun Lee

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  1. Young-Ghil Choi
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  2. Young-Jae Jin
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  3. Wang-Eun Lee
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  4. Jineun Lee
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  5. Giseop Kwak
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Correspondence to Giseop Kwak.

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Choi, YG., Jin, YJ., Lee, WE. et al. Determination of viscosities of alcohols, fatty oils, and mineral oils based on diffusion rates of fluids in a fluorescent microporous conjugated polymer film. Polym. Bull. 80, 1861–1871 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-022-04154-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-022-04154-w

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