Abstract
A structural transformation from a spherical microdomain structure to a cylindrical one in a semicrystalline polystyrene-b-polyethylenepropylene-b- polyethylene (PS/PEP/PE) terpolymer having a total molecular weight of 103 kg/mol under a strong external flow field was observed. Quiescently formed samples made by evaporation of the polymer in decalin show the disordered spherical microdomain structure of polystyrene (PS). The roll cast process generated a cylindrical PS microdomain structure well oriented along the flow direction as determined by TEM and SAXS. We explain the observed structural transformation by an analogy to the behavior of surfactant systems under external forces and furthermore demonstrate that the cylindrical structure is an example of a facilitated equilibrium morphology development by an external force.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2971-2977 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | polymer |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2000 Apr |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research is supported by the National Science Foundation DMR98-07591 and also ACS PRF-300350-AC7. We gratefully acknowledge Dr Y. Zhang and Mr C. Osuji for their help at the Brookhaven National Laboratories beamline. We are grateful to Mr A. Eisen for valuable comments in roll cast film preparation. We would like to thank the MIT Center for Materials Science and Engineering for the use of its TEM facility.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Organic Chemistry
- Polymers and Plastics
- Materials Chemistry