title: Measuring the solubility of solids in non-solvents: case of polystyrene in alkanes.
abstract: We introduce a simple and sensitive technique for measuring extremely low solubilities with a small sample size and small solvent volume. This technique involves measuring the decrease in the thickness of a supported thin film after exposure to a drop of known volume of solvent and removal of the solution. The feasibility of measuring very small changes in film thickness directly translates to the ability to measure extremely low solubility while at the same time using only μL of solvent. We apply the technique to the case of polystyrene with Mwvalues in the range 2500 g/mol to 22200 g/mol in alkane solvents and show that we can easily measure a solubility of 0.1 g/L using only 1[Formula: see text] g of material and 3[Formula: see text] L of solvent for each sample.
authors: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Ontario, Canada.
authors: F Y
authors: FY
authors: Lin
authors: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Ontario, Canada.
authors: W S R
authors: WS
authors: Forrest
authors: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Ontario, Canada.
authors: C R
authors: CR
authors: Daley
authors: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Chai
authors: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Ontario, Canada. jforrest@uwaterloo.ca.|Perimeter Institute for Theoretical physics, 31 Caroline St. N. Waterloo, N2L 2Y5, Ontario, Canada. jforrest@uwaterloo.ca.
authors: J A
authors: JA
authors: Forrest
keywords: Tips and Tricks