Multiscale characterization of semicrystalline polymeric materials by synchrotron radiation X-ray and neutron scattering

Synchrotron radiation (SR) X-ray and neutron scattering provide excellent probes for the investigation of polymeric material. Based on high brilliant beam with a tunable wavelength of SR, scattering techniques with high time and spatial resolutions have been developed for in situ X-ray study on polymeric materials. With the isotopic sensitivity of neutron, the detailed single chain behavior can be isolated from the polymeric matrix under variant conditions with the help of deuterium labeling and contrast variation/matching. With examples on flow-induced crystallization of polymer and hierarchical structure decomposition of polymer nanocomposite, current review attempts to present the advantages of SR X-ray and neutron scattering in the study of hierarchical and multiscale structural evolutions of polymeric materials. With time resolution up to sub-ms and spatial resolution of 100 nm, SR is expected to promote the understanding of non-equilibrium polymer physics under processing. With the ability to "see" the single chain conformation and turn the contrast of the multicomponent polymeric composites, neutron scattering can benefit the progress of polymer science. Platform based on SR and neutron source provide promising of establishing polymer Materials Genome database, which might strongly benefit industrial processing and accelerate the progress of material innovation.