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a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

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discussed above, HDPE, PS, PMMA, and PVDF components are shown to produce a multi-<br />

percolated structure with hierarchically or<strong>de</strong>red phases, since the interfacial tensions of the<br />

various pairs satisfy the positive conditions of the Harkins equation sets. Ternary blends and<br />

quaternary blends are prepared. After quiescent annealing, a substantial increase in the average<br />

phase size is observed. Selective solvent extraction of multi-percolated structures results in<br />

preparation of substrates with higher void volume. Hence, a fully interconnected porous HDPE<br />

substrate of low surface area is prepared by employing double- and triple-percolated<br />

morphology. The extra-large pores of HDPE substrates also facilitates the penetration of the<br />

polyaniline (PANI)/poly(styrene sulfonate) (PSS) solution inward to the interconnected porous<br />

area. Up to thirty-eight PSS and PANI layers are <strong>de</strong>posited on the internal surface of the 3dimensional<br />

porous polymeric substrate, revealing an inter-diffused network conformation.<br />

Microstructural information collected by SEM and AFM <strong>de</strong>picts a relatively thick<br />

polyelectrolyte multilayer as wi<strong>de</strong> as 5.5 μm for 38 layers of PSS and PANI on the surface of the<br />

porous HDPE substrate with a void volume of 66%. The mass <strong>de</strong>position profile of PANI/PSS as<br />

a function of layer numbers <strong>de</strong>monstrates an unusual non-linear growth with an oscillatory<br />

behavior. The oscillating <strong>de</strong>position indicates that PSS and PANI polyelectrolytes diffuse in the<br />

previously <strong>de</strong>posited layers. Like chains make contact with other like chains, and consequently,<br />

an inter-diffused network of PANI and PSS is generated. Since salt is generally ad<strong>de</strong>d in<br />

procedures involving LbL <strong>de</strong>position, the effect of the addition of 1 molar NaCl salt to the PSS<br />

polyanion in the multilayer construction is studied.<br />

Conductivity measurements show that the percolation threshold of PANI in porous <strong>de</strong>vices is<br />

achieved at a maximum of 8 layers. This corresponds to 0.19 wt.% PANI for a porous substrate<br />

ma<strong>de</strong> of 33% HDPE/33% PS/33% PVDF and 0.28 wt.% for a porous substrate generated from<br />

33% HDPE/33% PMMA/33% PVDF. It is found that sample conductivity increases by<br />

increasing the number of <strong>de</strong>posited PSS/PANI layers until a conductivity saturation plateau is<br />

reached after 32 <strong>de</strong>posited layers. Compression of porous samples can be employed as another<br />

control parameter to achieve a wi<strong>de</strong> range of conductivities in these conductive porous <strong>de</strong>vices.<br />

In the last paper, ternary HDPE/PS/PMMA blends with various compositions of components<br />

represent a complete wetting case with the <strong>de</strong>velopment of a thermodynamically stable PS layer<br />

between the HDPE and PMMA. Four thermodynamically stable sub-classes of morphologies<br />

exist for HDPE/PS/PMMA, <strong>de</strong>pending on the composition of phases: a) matrix/core-shell<br />

93

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