Open AccessPositron annihilation and free volume studies in polymer glasses
Author(s) -
Shantarovich V. P.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of polymer science part b: polymer physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1099-0488
pISSN - 0887-6266
DOI - 10.1002/polb.21602
Subject(s) - polymer , positron annihilation , positronium , annihilation , materials science , positron , volume (thermodynamics) , spins , polymer chemistry , thermodynamics , chemical physics , electron , physics , composite material , condensed matter physics , nuclear physics
In this article, the interconnections between the ortho ‐positronium (the bound state of the positron and electron having parallel orientation of spins, T Ps) pick‐off annihilation characteristics and concentration and effective size of elementary free volumes in polymer structures are discussed. Free volume parameters are responsible for many important properties of polymers such as permeability to gases, selectivity, ageing mechanical strength, etc. However, the ways of quantitative estimations of size distributions of the free volume elements on the bases of experimental data are sometime not obvious. Various approaches to this problem are analyzed in this review mostly on examples of glassy polymer membrane materials. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 46: 2485–2503, 2008