When some elementary free volumes in polymers are not seen by positron annihilation experiments

Abstract

Size distributions of elementary free volumes have been studied in mesoporous micro-heterogeneous polymer sorbents. Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS), low temperature gas adsorption (BET) and thermo-stimulated luminescence (TSL) measurements are employed as complementary instruments for the study. It is shown that small admixtures of rubbers are very effective for variations of the pore size distribution. While BET technique was very informative for measurements of mesopores(2-50 nm), positron annihilation was sensitive to micropores(<2 nm), but not for mesopores. The last specificity is explained by the limited positronium diffusion length in a polymer and also by inhomogeneous distribution of mesoporesin heterogeneous systems. TSL measurements gave information on sizes of rubber inclusions in compositions.