The Effect of Temperature on the Free Volume in Polytetrafluoroethylene Studied by Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy

The positron annihilation techniques have been applied to investigate the free volume holes in pure and doped polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) with glass as a function of temperature. The measurements were performed from room temperature up to 250 degree C. The lifetime spectra were analyzed using two methods; 1) Finite-term analysis to determine the average values of the orthopositronium (o-Ps) lifetime and its intensity using PATFIT program, 2) Continuous lifetime analysis to obtain the o-Ps lifetime and o-Ps hole volume distributions using MELT program. The ortho-positronium (o-Ps) lifetimes, (T3 and T4) are found to be vary depending upon the phase of the polymer. Within the temperature range two transitions can be observed. The first one is related to the glass transition temperature, Tg (at 130 degree C for pure PTFE and at 110 degree C for doped PTFE with glass). The second one is the crystalline temperature at 210 degree C for the two samples. It was found that, Tg is shifted toward the lower values (110 degree C) for doped PTFE with glass, which could be attributed to the increase in the degree of crystallinity. This is in consistent with the wide-angle x-ray scattering data. A correlation between the positron annihilation parameters and the electrical conductivity was achieved