Small-Angle Scattering of the Statistical Structure of Domain Boundaries

Abstract

The determination of the width of domain boundaries by the SAXS method can contain substantial errors if the boundary region is not represented by a smooth homogeneous density transition but by a statistical structure of a certain coarseness. It is shown that these errors lead, in general, to an underestimation of the values of the boundary widths and to a compensation of the expected increase of these values with temperature in the case of block copolymers. SAXS studies of samples with a high preferred orientation of the interface planes can be used to minimize the errors and to obtain information on the coarseness of the statistical structure of the domain boundaries. © 1987, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.