ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

This is a page describing data taken during an experiment at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source. Information about the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source can be found at https://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk.


The temperature-dependent structure of glass-forming poly and oligo(methyl acrylate)

Abstract: Glassy polymers are important in applications ranging from structural (medical implants, additive manufacturing), to optical components, coatings, or membranes for controlled ion or gas transport. However, the fundamental mechanisms behind glass formation are not well understood, and chain connectivity and flexibility makes glass-formation in polymers particularly complex. The chain-length plays an important role in polymer structure and dynamics and the glass-transition behaviour can be divided into three main regimes: (I) a short-chain regime, (II) an intermediate (~2-10 Kuhn steps), and (III) a long-chain regime where the dynamics are chain-length independent. These regimes show clear structural and dynamic signatures, but the detailed behaviour within these three regimes are not well understood. To address this, we here propose to use neutron diffraction at NIMROD to determine the temperature-dependent structural evolution, in terms of the position and width of the structure factor contributions for a model polymer: poly(methyl acrylate) (PMA). PMA is identified as an ideal model polymer for this investigation due to its: (i) clear regime behaviour, (ii) well-controlled synthesis, (iii) suitability for complementary experimental and computational studies. The analysis of the diffraction data will be supported by MD simulations, and the diffraction data will form an essential basis for future QENS investigations of the dynamics in PMA.

Principal Investigator: Dr Johan Mattsson
Experimenter: Mr Jiaxin Zhao
Experimenter: Dr Jia-Fei Poon
Experimenter: Professor Peter Olmsted
Experimenter: Dr Antonio Faraone
Experimenter: Professor Andrew Wilson
Local Contact: Dr Tom Headen

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2420434

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2420434

Part DOI Instrument Public release date Download Link
10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2420434-1 NIMROD 16 December 2027 Download

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 Johan Mattsson et al; (2024): The temperature-dependent structure of glass-forming poly and oligo(methyl acrylate), STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2420434

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



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