by Kathryn
L. Beers, Jack F. Douglas, Eric J. Amis and Alamgir Karim
Polymers Division
Multivariant
Measurement Methods Group
Very thin films of semi-crystalline polymers are increasingly being employed in coatings applications and there is a need to better understand how film thickness and crystallization conditions influence the crystalline morphology and resulting film properties. Since the parameter space governing this problem is large and the theoretical understanding of thin film crystallization is limited, we study a model polymer (isotactic polystyrene) using a combinatorial, high throughput methodology in order to identify the most salient phenomenological aspects of this problem. Films having a gradient in thickness (h) are crystallized from the melt on a gradient temperature stage oriented orthogonal to h. The crystallization kinetics and morphology are studied by imaging subregions of the film in an automated, segmental manner.
