Fully Automated Instrument for Solution Viscosity in Polymeric Materials.

The IVA® – Intrinsic Viscosity Analyzer is a compact and fully automated instrument for measuring the intrinsic viscosity in a wide range of polymeric materials from ambient temperature up to 200ºC. The process is entirely performed without user intervention nor handling any solvents including filling of vials and dissolution of the samples,  thanks to an autosampler with capacity of up to 42 samples.  At the core of the IVA®, a robust two?capillary viscometer collects relative viscosity data from which intrinsic viscosity is derived. The stainless steel capillaries design is self-cleaning and self-calibrating, ensuring reliable and reproducible data. Furthermore, the instrument adds safety to the process thanks to the full automation, thus IVA® becomes a practical and convenient alternative to manual or semi-automated methods.  

Introduction
The determination of the solution viscosity of polymeric materials is very important to the industry, both to research and manufacturing, since it can be used to estimate molar mass providing important information relating to the physical properties of polymers. The relative viscosity of a dilute polymer solution to that of the pure solvent itself is measured and from it, the intrinsic viscosity (IV or [η]) of the polymer is calculated. Due to the popularity of dilute solution viscosity measurements and the availability of those methods in many manufacturing laboratories, the IV of polymers has been traditionally used to specify and to control the production grades. It must be noted however, that the IV is not a property of the polymer itself, as the molar mass is, but rather a property of the polymer solution, influenced by the solvent and the temperature.
The IVA® (Intrinsic Viscosity Analyzer) is a fully automated instrument for viscosity measurements of polymeric materials in solution. It is compatible with typically used organic solvents such as decalin, tetralin, tri-chlorobenzene (TCB) and ortho-dichlorobenzene among many others. Dissolution temperature and analysis temperature can be programmed independently from ambient to 200ºC, so that a wide range of polymers, even the most crystalline ones, can be analyzed with convenience and safety.
Figure 1. IVA® instrument, fully automated benchtop system for measuring intrinsic viscosity of polymeric materials soluble at room or elevated temperatures up to 200ºC, compatible with a variety of solvents. Autosampler including dissolution oven (left), instrument main unit with solvent / waste containers and detectors oven (center) and computer with control and data processing / reporting software (right).