AVS 49th International Symposium
    Applied Surface Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session AS-TuM

Paper AS-TuM8
Surface-induced Ordering of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) Studied with In-situ Grazing Incidence X-ray Diffraction

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 10:40 am, Room C-106

Session: Polymer Characterization
Presenter: J.E. Macdonald, Cardiff University, UK
Authors: J.E. Macdonald, Cardiff University, UK
M. Durell, Cardiff University, UK
D. Trolley, Cardiff University, UK
P.C. Jukes, University of Sheffield, UK
A.M. Higgins, University of Sheffield, UK
R.A.L. Jones, University of Sheffield, UK
Correspondent: Click to Email
Grazing incidence x-ray diffraction has been performed during in-situ annealing of a polymer thin film for the first time to investigate the molecular configuration at the surface of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) films during crystallisation. The structural ordering at the surface of the film was compared directly with that in the bulk of the film by employing incident angles at and above the critical angle for total reflection. Ordering was observed at the surface at annealing temperatures of 85-95°C, while the bulk of the film remained amorphous. Parallel in-situ atomic force microscopy studies give direct images of the spherulites formed at the surface. Both techniques in tandem thus yield the structure and kinetics of ordering at the surface and in the bulk of the film.