in polymer films were
measured of cyclohexane (904 cm–1), ethanol (879
cm–1), acetone (529 cm–1), D2O (2510 cm–1), methanol-d4 (2485 cm–1), DCM (1265 cm–1), and toluene-d8 (541 cm–1). The wavenumbers in parentheses for each solvent refer to the positions
of a characteristic solvent band that was sufficiently isolated for
accurate band integration. The time-dependent band areas were calculated
with PerkinElmer TimeBase software using a baseline anchored to the
spectrum to either side of a band and required no further processing
before model fitting. FTIR spectra of Znpol at maximum solvent swelling
for all solvents are shown in
repeating the acetone diffusion experiment eight times on Znpol films
with thicknesses varying between 124 and 159 μm. The standard
deviation in the thickness measurement, caused by uneven sample surfaces,
was ∼10%. The standard deviation in the swelling factor was
determined by repeating the experiment for acetone nine times and
was found to be 0.13. We have applied a method to calculate the 95%
confidence intervals of the fitting parameters using a least-squares
procedure43 (link) (see the
procedure was below 4%, whereas for Deq the interval was between 27% and 34%.