Density-fluctuation-induced swelling of polymer thin films in carbon dioxide.
We report an anomalous swelling of polymer thin films in carbon dioxide (CO(2)) which is associated (in both locus and form) with the density fluctuation ridge that forms along the extension of the coexistence curve of gas and liquid in the P-T phase diagram. Neutron reflectivity results showed that CO(2) could be sorbed to a large extent ( approximately 60%) in thin polymer films even when the bulk miscibility of the polymer with CO(2) is very poor. The anomalous swelling is found to scale with the polymer radius of gyration (R(g)) and extends to a distance approximately 10 R(g).
Koga
Tadanori
T
State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA.
Seo
Young-Soo
YS
Zhang
Yimin
Y
Shin
Kwanwoo
K
Kusano
Kouhei
K
Nishikawa
Keiko
K
Rafailovich
Miriam H
MH
Sokolov
Jonathan C
JC
Chu
Benjamin
B
Peiffer
Dennis
D
Occhiogrosso
Ron
R
Satija
Sushil K
SK