Polymer films structure-property relationships

In this paper, an overview of the origin of second-order nonlinear optical processes in molecular and thin film materials is presented. The tutorial begins with a discussion of the basic physical description of second-order nonlinear optical processes. Simple models are used to describe molecular responses and propagation characteristics of polarization and field components. A brief discussion of quantum mechanical approaches is followed by a discussion of the 2-level model and some structure property relationships are illustrated. The relationships between microscopic and macroscopic nonlinearities in crystals, polymers, and molecular assemblies are discussed. Finally, several of the more common experimental methods for determining nonlinear optical coefficients are reviewed. 

Structural Features and Structure - Property Relationships of Thin Polymer Films... 

The processing of ordered polymer (PBO and PBZT) films is based on pioneering work in polymer synthesis and fiber spinning by the U.S. Air Force and their contractors (3-5). Impressive success has been realized in rigid-rod polymer synthesis (6-7) and fiber spinning from anisotropic solutions (8-9). Structure-property relationships... 

Xanthos, M. and Wu,. (2004) Microporous films from polymer blends and composites - processing/structure/ property relationships. Proceedings of the 62nd SPE ANTEC, vol. 50, p. 2641. 

Because the absorption at 2600 nm is characteristic of a more expanded conformational structure and the absorption at 780 nm is characteristic of a random coil conformation, the ratio of the absorbances at these two wavelengths can be used to estimate the relative ratio of these two conformational structures. As shown in Fig. 10, there exists a monotonically increasing relationship between the conductivity and the ratio of the intensity of the free carrier tail to the intensity of the localized polaron for free standing films of PANI-HCSA. This structure-property relationship serves as a criterion in choosing the appropriate solvent to process a conductive polymer into the highly conductive form. In particular, the simplicity of the UV-vis-NIR spectroscopic technique makes this method even more attractive for practical applications,... 

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