Glass viscoelasticity

In other work, the impact of thermal processing on linewidth variation was examined and interpreted in terms of how the resist s varying viscoelastic properties influence acid diffusion (105). The authors observed two distinct behaviors, above and below the resist film s glass transition. For example, a plot of the rate of deprotection as a function of post-exposure processing temperature show a change in slope very close to the T of the resist. Process latitude was improved and linewidth variation was naininiized when the temperature of post-exposure processing was below the film s T. 

Tackifying resins enhance the adhesion of non-polar elastomers by improving wettability, increasing polarity and altering the viscoelastic properties. Dahlquist [31 ] established the first evidence of the modification of the viscoelastic properties of an elastomer by adding resins, and demonstrated that the performance of pressure-sensitive adhesives was related to the creep compliance. Later, Aubrey and Sherriff [32] demonstrated that a relationship between peel strength and viscoelasticity in natural rubber-low molecular resins blends existed. Class and Chu [33] used the dynamic mechanical measurements to demonstrate that compatible resins with an elastomer produced a decrease in the elastic modulus at room temperature and an increase in the tan <5 peak (which indicated the glass transition temperature of the resin-elastomer blend). Resins which are incompatible with an elastomer caused an increase in the elastic modulus at room temperature and showed two distinct maxima in the tan <5 curve. 

In a fundamental sense, the miscibility, adhesion, interfacial energies, and morphology developed are all thermodynamically interrelated in a complex way to the interaction forces between the polymers. Miscibility of a polymer blend containing two polymers depends on the mutual solubility of the polymeric components. The blend is termed compatible when the solubility parameter of the two components are close to each other and show a single-phase transition temperature. However, most polymer pairs tend to be immiscible due to differences in their viscoelastic properties, surface-tensions, and intermolecular interactions. According to the terminology, the polymer pairs are incompatible and show separate glass transitions. For many purposes, miscibility in polymer blends is neither required nor de-... 

There are several ways in which the impact properties of plastics can be improved if the material selected does not have sufficient impact strength. One method is by altering the composition of the material so that it is no longer a glassy plastic at the operating temperature of the product (Chapter 6). In the case of PVC this is done by the addition of an impact modifier which can be a compatible plastic such as an acrylic or a nitrile rubber. The addition of such a material lowers the glass transition temperature and the material becomes a rubbery viscoelastic plastic with much improved impact properties. This is one of the methods in which PVC materials are made to exhibit superior impact properties. 

The presence of a second viscoelastic phase, the mesophase, obviously affects the behaviour of the composite, which exhibits a glass-transition temperature, different than that of the matrix material. 

No material is perfectly elastic in the sense of strictly obeying Hooke s law. Polymers, particularly when above their glass transition temperature, are certainly not. For these macromolecular materials there is an element of flow in their response to an applied stress, and the extent of this flow varies with time. Such behaviour, which may be considered to be a hybrid of perfectly elastic response and truly viscous flow, is known as viscoelasticity. 

Polymers which creep readily have large values of / polymers which hardly creep at all have small values. For viscoelastic polymers below their glass transition temperature, there is a characteristic creep curve, as illustrated in Figure 7.6. 

In contrast to the mature instrumental techniques discussed above, a hitherto nonexistent class of techniques will require substantial development effort. The new instruments will be capable of measuring the thermal (e.g., glass transition temperatures for amorphous or semicrystalline polymers and melting temperatures for materials in the crystalline phase), chemical, and mechanical (e.g., viscoelastic) properties of nanoscale films in confined geometries, and their creation will require rethinking of conventional methods that are used for bulk measurements. 

PTT has three dynamic mechanical viscoelastic relaxations [61, 62], a, (j and Y (Figure 11.9). The 70°C a-relaxation is the glass transition. In a study on the effect of methylene sequence length on aromatic polyester viscoelastic properties, Farrow et al. [63] reported a PTT a-relaxation as high as 95 °C. They also found that Tg of this series of aromatic polyesters did not show any odd-even effects, which was later confirmed by Smith et al. [64],... 

---