Scattering and Physical Aging in Amorphous, Intrinsically Microporous Polymers

Amanda McDermott (Pennsylvania State University)

Polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) form glassy, rigid membranes with high gas permeability and a large concentration of pores smaller than 1 nm. Their porosity -equivalent to free volume- arises from an unusual chain structure combining rigid segments with sites of contortion. Because PIM scattering patterns are highly sensitive to sample history, techniques generally applicable to porous materials also yield information about physical aging and swelling (an approximate inverse process). A preliminary model for extracting pore sizes from PIM SAXS/WAXS patterns will be presented, deriving significant insight from molecular dynamics simulations. Upcoming SANS experiments will also be discussed, including in situ adsorption using the "iv-SANS" sample environment developed at NIST.

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