| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/M08516/01 |
| Title: |
GRAZING INCIDENCE X-RAY DIFFRACTION FOR THE STUDY OF THE STRUCTURE OF POLYMER SURFACES AND INTERFACES |
| Principal Investigator: |
Macdonald, Professor JE |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
School of Physics and Astronomy |
| Organisation: |
Cardiff University |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 December 1998 |
Ends: |
30 November 2001 |
Value (£): |
192,775
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Materials Characterisation |
Materials Processing |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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The state of ordering of polymer molecules within a few tens of Angstroms of the surfaces of polymer films and near interfaces between different polymers, will be investigated. There is currently an extreme paucity of experimental information concerning chain conformation in the surface region with which to compare what predictions exist from theory and computer simulation. This is in spite of the fact that the conformation of chains and in particular their degrees of ordering, will affect important properties such as adhesion, wettability, friction and barrier properties and in the case of semi-conducting polymers will have a controlling influence on the performance of devices such as light emitting diodes and field effect transistors. We will concentrate on two important polymer systems; PET as a representative semi-crystalline polymer and PPV as an example of a semi-conducting conjugated polymer. The main technique will be grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, which enables the structural properties of the top 50A to be compared with the rest of the film. This will be supplemented by attenuated total reflection infra-red spectrometry, to study crystallisation in thin films, atomic force microscopy, ellipsometry and neutron reflectivity. An exploratory experiment has already shown enhanced ordering at the surface of PET.
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Key Findings |
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.cf.ac.uk |