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a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

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ABSTRACT<br />

This thesis presents, for the first time, a comprehensive survey on the subject of self-assembled,<br />

multi-encapsulated structures for ternary, quaternary, and quinary polymer blends <strong>de</strong>monstrating<br />

complete wetting. The work targets the <strong>de</strong>velopment of novel conductive <strong>de</strong>vices possessing low<br />

percolation threshold concentrations of conductive polymer. The blends studied are comprised of<br />

conductive polyaniline and four commercial polymers: HDPE, PS, PMMA, and PVDF. A<br />

complete wetting morphology is an interfacial tension driven structure which can be<br />

thermodynamically predicted by the Harkins spreading theory. This type of microstructure in a<br />

ternary polymer blend is formed when one of the spreading coefficients, as calculated from the<br />

interfacial tensions of polymer pairs in the system, has a positive value. Conceptually, for a<br />

ternary blend, complete wetting is the state where one of the components will always tend to<br />

completely separate the other two. The <strong>de</strong>velopment of similar thermodynamic <strong>de</strong>finitions to<br />

quaternary and quinary systems results in the prediction and construction of hierarchically<br />

or<strong>de</strong>red multi-encapsulated, multi-component blends. Controlling the compositions of<br />

components in such hierarchically or<strong>de</strong>red systems in ternary, quaternary, and quinary blends<br />

allows for the preparation of multi-percolated structures in which all phases are fully<br />

interconnected and interpenetrated. This approach is employed to attain the goal of this research<br />

which is to build a foundation of methods to reduce the percolation threshold of components in<br />

multi-component blends. The percolation threshold of phases is <strong>de</strong>fined as the formation of longrange<br />

connectivity in random systems. The geometrical restriction of phases in self-assembled<br />

systems, for example in interfacial tension driven structures such as a multi-percolated<br />

morphologies, can significantly reduce the percolation threshold of phases. Another part of the<br />

work has focused on the preparation of ultra-low surface area porous substrates <strong>de</strong>rived from<br />

multi-percolated polymer blends, followed by the <strong>de</strong>position of polyanilene conductive polymer<br />

(PANI) on the internal porous surface using a layer-by-layer technique.<br />

Polymer blends comprising various components including HDPE, PS, PMMA, PVDF, and<br />

PANI, and in some cases PP, PEMA, and PS-co-PMMA are prepared in an internal mixer. Discshaped<br />

samples for conductivity testing are compression mol<strong>de</strong>d in a hot press. Some of the<br />

samples, after melt processing, are compression mol<strong>de</strong>d in a hot press to perform quiescent<br />

ix

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