An Experimental Exploration of Structure-Property Relationships Which Delimit Transport in and Physical Aging of Glassy Membrane and Barrier Materials

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The proposed experimental research program is designed to address those fundamental, structural, mesogenic, and configurational features of liquid crystalline polymers and closely related polymer structures which confer high barrier properties upon liquid crystalline polymers as a class of materials. The research will focus upon explicit comparison of the properties of isotropic, amorphous, and disordered polymers and the identical polymers which have developed liquid crystalline order by solvent or thermal treatment. Moreover, the effect of systematic structure and configurational changes on sorption and transport behavior of liquid crystalline polymers will further define the role of liquid crystalline order on the barrier properties of liquid crystalline polymeric materials. These fundamental studies are directed toward developing an expanded and more subtle repertoire of structural modifications which would be useful for the rational tailoring of super-barriers based upon liquid crystalline polymers and will also provide useful mechanistic insight into the fundamental basis for high permeability in disordered rigid-rod polymeric materials. Central to the thesis under consideration is the notion that extremely subtle structural, mesogenic, and configurational features distinguish the most permeable from the least permeable polymeric materials. This project is jointly supported by NSF and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), following a special NSF-EPRI research initiative on polymeric materials.