Interface and Interphase in Polymeric Multilayer Materials

Abstract

Lessons from biology have revealed that natural materials systems have hierarchical structures that are specifically designed to accommodate a unique spectrum of required properties. These systems always have many scale levels that are bound together by interfacial coupling or adhesion. Micro/nanolayered coextrusion processing is highly suited to apply these lessons of scale, interaction and architecture. Three examples will be discussed emphasizing scale in photonic applications with high refractive index contrast, interfacial phenomena in amorphous systems, and polymer solid state structure and morphology obtained by confined crystallization. With different amorphous polymers, the degree of segmental interdiffusion has been quantitatively correlated with the thickness of the interphase region. This enables the establishment of relationships between adhesion and various degrees of miscibility. Finally, unique single crystal with lamellar orientation during confined crystallization, will be discussed which allows the development of high barrier packaging systems.