Recent Advances in Rheo-Optical Studies of Polymers in the Solid State

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Four recent developments for the study of the rheo-optical behavior of polymeric films are reviewed. These are (I) the use of the two-dimensional optical multichannel analyzer for the study of changes in superstructure by small angle light scattering, (2) the dynamic small angle Xray scattering technique for following time dependent morphology changes at a somewhat smaller level of size, (3) small angle neutron scattering for observing deformation at a molecular level, and (4) FTIR time resolved infrared spectroscopy which also permits molecular level observations. The use of these methods is illustrated with several examples involving both deformation and phase changes of amorphous and crystalline polymers.

Infrared Rheo-Optics of Bombyx Mori Fibroin Film by Dynamic Step-Scan FT-IR Spectroscopy Combined with Digital Signal Processing

“…Rheo-optics, a com bined analytical tool of spectroscopy and rheology, is very powerful to study the relationship between mechanical properties and structures of polymeric materials. 1,2 Among various rheo-optical techniques, infrared rheo-optics has been successfully applied for polymers under sinusoidal external strain 3±12 because of several instrumental and computational breakthroughs, such as the development of the step-scan interferometer, the introduction of dynamic alignment with the improvement of highly sensitive detectors, and the introduction of two-dimensional (2D) correlation analysis. 13±15 Three types of spectrom eters are now available for infrared rheo-optical m easurements: dispersive, 3±5,9 step-scan Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), 6±8,11,12 and rapid-scan FT-IR 10 spectrom eters.…”

Structure and Properties of Fatigued Segmented Poly(urethaneurea)s IV. Dynamic Infrared Dichroism

“…Rheo-optics is one of the most powerful tools to reveal the relationship between microscopic structure and macroscopic properties. 1 There are several techniques in rheo-optics, such as, dynamic X-ray diffraction, dynamic light scattering, dynamic birefringence, and dynamic infrared dichroism. These techniques provide information on orientation of crystals, amorphous chains, and some particular polymer segments as well as mechanical response signals as a function of the applied strain.…”

Structure characterization of cold drawn high density polyethylene thin film

“…At the same time, the physical properties of the sample change significantly. Thermo mechanical histories, such as annealing, influences the ability of materials to undergo plastic deformation on (HDPE) thin films as previously reported in several studies 5, 7–10. Annealing at high temperatures renders a polymer stiffer and more brittle.…”