Electric Field Effects on Polymer Alloys

最近的新工作表明，电场可以用来生产具有独特形态的相分离聚合物合金。在电场中进行薄膜铸造，可以生产出尺寸可控的球形小相、在样品上形成“珍珠链”的球形小相、在样品上形成链的椭球状小相、柱状小相以及嵌段共聚物和均聚物混合物中独特的形态。这项工作将使用各向异性样品进行扩展，这些样品预计具有各向异性的机械性能和介电常数，例如，当有序的小相由导电聚合物制成时，小相取向方向上的介电常数预计会非常高。当柱状相由导电聚合物制成时，样品应该只在一个方向上表现出导电性。这些复合材料的电学特性特别令人感兴趣，因为这些特性和调制它们的能力是成像、标记和显示技术的核心。

New recent work has demonstrated that electric fields can be used to produce phase-separated polymer alloys with unique morphologies. Film casting in electric fields has allowed the production of samples containing spherical minor phases with controlled dimensions, spherical minor phases that form "pearl chains" across the sample, ellipsoidal minor phases that form chains across the sample, columnlike minor phases across the sample, and unique morphologies in mixtures of block copolymers with homopolymers. This work will be extended using anisotropic samples which are expected to have anisotropic mechanical properties and dielectric constants, for example, when the ordered minor phases are made of conducting polymers, the dielectric constant in the direction of orientation of the minor phases is expected to be exceptionally high. When the columnlike phases are made of conducting polymers, the samples should exhibit conductivity in only one direction. The electrical characteristics of these composites are of particular interest since it is these properties and the ability to modulate them that lies at the heart of imaging, marking, and display technologies.