[lag]

Hi,
I would like to use PVA polyvinyl alcohol for applications in the field of soft-lithography. An article (Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 123118 (2007) reports the recipe used by the authors:

"The PVA resin solution was made by dissolving 5 wt % of PVA, which has a hydrolysis degree of 87%–89% and a molecular weight of about 100 000 g/mol, in water."

I bought a PVA similar to one described in the article and I tried to prepare a solution using 0.5g of PVA and 10mL of water, but I wasn't able to completely dissolve the PVA, the solution was saturated. Does anybody know how to overcome this problem?

Thank you!
lag

[DrCMS]

When you say similar how similar is your material to theirs?

[lag]

The material I bought is:

poly(vinyl)alcohol, 87-89%hydrolyzed and MW=85000 - 124000 cas. 9002-89-5

I think it's very similar to the one used in the article...

thanks for your help !

[Mitch]

Did they say the water had to be at a particular pH? Try changing the pH of your solution to see if they 'accidentally' left out that crucial bit of information.

Also, you might want to try emailing the authors and asking them to reply here or telling us what they say.

[lag]

Hi,
I succeeded in obtainig a 5%wt solution of PVA in water stirring the solution for 36h at 50°C, before using the solution I filtered it with a 0.45um filter, and it worked well!
Thanks!
bye
lag