In t
he present contribution, t
wo-dimensional ATR-FTIR spectroscopy
was used to study t
he diffusion of
water in poly(
hars/epsilon.gif" BORDER=0 >-caprolactone) (PCL). In t
he spectral region of t
he
hars/nu.gif" BORDER=0 >(OH) stretc
hing vibration of
water, fourabsorption bands (3635, 3560, 3411, and 3220 cm
-1) can be identified. T
he
hig
her
wavenumber band pairat 3635 and 3560 cm
-1 is assigned to t
he antisymmetric and symmetric OH stretc
hing vibrations, respectively,of
water
whic
h is partially
hydrogen-bonded to t
he carbonyl groups of PCL,
whereas t
he lo
wer frequencyband pair at 3411 (antisymmetric) and 3220 cm
-1 (symmetric) is attributed to t
he OH stretc
hing vibrationsof bulk
water
whic
h is fully
hydrogen-bonded to ot
her
water molecules. From t
he async
hronous map of a2D correlation analysis of spectra recorded during t
he diffusion of
water into PCL, it
was concluded t
hatduring t
he diffusion process t
he
water molecules first penetrate into t
he free volume (microvoids) of t
hePCL matrix or are molecularly dispersed in t
he polymer matrix and t
hen form
hydrogen bonds
wit
h t
heC=O groups of t
he polymer.