The response of microstructure to processing in a series of poly(siloxaneimide) copolymers

Poly(siloxaneimide) (PSI) segmented copolymers exhibit organized microdomains if the blocks are sufficiently incompatible. As with neat diblock and triblock copolymers, the processing route employed to prepare films of PSI materials is expected to influence the dimensions and/or morphology of the resultant microstructure. In this work, small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) is utilized to characterize the disordered microstructure found in films of a series of PSI copolymers which are subjected to solvent casting and various thermal treatments. Microstructural dimensions such as the periodicity and correlation length are deduced from the Teubner-Strey (TS) model for disordered microemulsions. The scattering intensity of each copolymer up to q = 5.0 nm⁻¹, where q is the scattering vector, is found to scale as q^{−2.8+−0.1}. Results indicate that processing the materials as cast films or as melt-pressed films allowed to cool slowly has a small, but discernible, effect on microstructural characteristics. SANS profiles of films quenched from elevated temperatures reveal a clear transition in microdomain periodicity, which correlates well with the glass transition temperature of the imide microphase in these and other materials of similar chemical structure.