Polymer dielectrics, such as isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and polycarbonate (PC), are of interest in the fabrication of capacitors because they have a high breakdown voltage relative to other materials. Confinement of these polymers in nanoporous templates can potentially enhance the dielectric properties of the material via directed crystallization. iPP and PC were melt-wetted into nanoporous templates of varying diameter (15 � 200 nm) in order to study the effect of pore dimensions on crystallization. Using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), it is shown that iPP crystallizes into the a-phase and preferentially orients along the long axis pore. A transition from hetero to homogeneous crystallization was observed in relation to pore diameter. The isothermal crystallization kinetics was analyzed using Avrami analysis. As the pore diameter decreases crystallization shifts to a multi-mode process, whose origins will be discussed in this presentation.

Curvature-directed crystallization of polymer dielectrics in nanopores

247th National Meeting (2014)

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