Analytical Sciences

Dipolarity, Hydrogen-Bond Basicity and Hydrogen-Bond Acidity of Aqueous Poly-(ethylene glycol) Solutions

In-Whan KIM,* Myung Duk JANG,** Young Kyun RYU,*** Eun Hee CHO,*** Young Kyu LEE,*** and Jung Hag PARK*** 

*Department of Chemistry Education, Taegu University, Kyongsan 712-714, Korea
**Department of Health and Hygiene, Andong Info Tech, Andong 762-830, Korea
***Department of Chemistry, Yeungnam University, Kyongsan 712-749, Korea

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) in water is known to alter the structure and/or state of water to give a different polarity from that of pure water. We determined using the solvatochromic comparison method the dipolarity/polarizability (pi*), hydrogen bond (HB) accepting basicity (beta) and HB donating acidity (alpha) of aqueous solutions of PEGs of variegated molecular weights at different concentrations in order to understand the influence of the polymer on these properties of water. It was observed that PEG decreases alpha for water while it does not change pi* and beta appreciably in the range of the molecular weight and compositions studied.

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