Development of synchrotron DSC/WAXD/SAXS simultaneous measurement system for polymeric materials at the BL40B2 in SPring-8 and its application to the study of crystal phase transitions of fluorine polymers

A new system of rapidly-scanning DSC/WAXD/SAXS simultaneous measurements has been successfully developed at the BL40B2 in SPring-8, Japan. The combination of the ultra-bright and highly-directional X-ray beams with the highly-sensitive two-dimensional (2D) detectors such as an imaging plate (IP), a CCD detector and a flat panel (FP) detector has made it possible to perform the rapidly-scanning time-resolved measurements of WAXD and SAXS for the polymeric materials subjected to the various kinds of external field like temperature, tensile force, magnetic field, hydrostatic pressure, and so on. The experimental data about the phase transitions of vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene copolymer with VDF 82 mol% content and poly(vinylidene fluoride) form I have been presented as actual examples, where the phase transitions of the polar crystal consisting of planar-zigzag chains to the gauche-type high-temperature phase have been confirmed definitely and the remarkable change in lamellar stacking structure could be detected in the temperature region immediately below the melting point. (author)