X-ray scattering studies on multiphasic polymer systems

Abstract

The scope of the present chapter had to be limited to some recent studies on the application of synchrotron WAXS and SAXS in three particular multicomponent and multiphase polymer systems. The first system comprises materials that became known as microfibrillar reinforced composites (MFC) produced from oriented blends of thermoplastic semicrystalline polymers by conventional processing techniques. These materials belong to fiber-reinforced composites that have many important engineering applications but are notoriously difficult to study. As a second material system, the structure development during processing of an immiscible polymer blend of polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) was investigated by X-ray scattering techniques. Structure formation in polymers blends has been widely investigated in the last years, mainly in terms of the development of the size, shape, and orientation of the dispersed component under flow deformation. Further, the structure evolution and damage during stretching in the solid state of polymers blends is much less researched topic. Complementing, this second study, the structure evolution of the PP/PS blend was investigated by time resolved x-ray scattering in a synchrotron source. Finally, the third case reveals investigations on the structure of polymer nanocomposites developed during processing and also during stretching. Polymer nanocomposites are a recent class of materials, and very few studies have been published on the structure development in them.