ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Probing the glass transition in polymers using LF muSR

Abstract: Nearly all polymers form glasses and the glass transition at temperature Tg dominates many physical properties of polymers that are relevant for their applications. The most detailed previous muon studies of polymer glasses have been made in TF mode using diamagnetic muon probe states. This works particularly well in low Tg systems for probing Tg near the surface of thin films using low energy muons. If Tg approaches or exceeds room temperature then fast diffusion of unbound diamagnetic muons forces a switch to bound paramagnetic muon probe states. LF muSR techniques will be developed here for polymer glass studies using the relaxation of the paramagnetic muons at both low LF and at ALC resonance points to probe the dynamical state of the polymer. The studies will focus on two polymers, the biocompatible polymer poly(L-lactide) (Tg=335K) and the low Tg polymer polybutadiene (Tg=170K)

Principal Investigator: Dr Francis Pratt
Experimenter: Professor Tom Lancaster
Experimenter: Professor Stephen Blundell
Experimenter: Dr Leandro Liborio
Experimenter: Dr Stephen Cottrell
Experimenter: Dr Benjamin Huddart
Experimenter: Dr Matteo Aramini

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1720447

ISIS Experiment Number: RB1720447

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
Select the data format above to find out more about it.

Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr Francis Pratt et al; (2017): Probing the glass transition in polymers using LF muSR, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1720447

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.