STUDY ON THE MICROPHASE STRUCTURE OF SODIUM SULFONATED POLYSTYRENE IONOMER BY NUCLEAR MAGNETIC-RELAXATION MEASUREMENTS

Abstract

Nuclear magnetic relaxation techniques have been used to study the microphase structure of sodium sulfonated polystyrene ionomers. Microphase separation in the ionomers could be evidenced by the magnetization decays, which were resolved into two components. At lower temperature, 300K, the decay function for the ionomer was found to be a combination of two Gaussian functions that are indicative of more rapid dephasing of individual spins, while the magnetization decay at higher temperature, 413K, was composed of both a Gaussian function and a Lorentzian function. The relative portion of the ionic phase in the ionomer was seen to be significantly affected by the ion concentration or the temperature. From the comparison of the relative amounts of the ionic phases obtained from both the material's composition and the nuclear magnetic relaxation experiment. it is anticipated that the ionic domains contain a substantial amount of hydrocarbon segments.