A piston-and-cylinder device for compressibility studies on polymers and other “soft” materials

Abstract

We describe an all-steel piston-and-cylinder device for pVT studies on “soft” materials, including liquids, in the range 100–450 K and 0–1.5 GPa. The internal diameter is 15 mm with sample lengths between 10 and 50 mm. Piston displacements are measured to within 0.1 μm using differential transformer transducers. Pressure is calculated from force per unit area and the deformation of pistons and cylinder under pressure are taken into account. The inaccuracy in ΔV/V is less than 0.5%. Experimental data are shown for indium and urea.