Real-time investigation of solvent swelling induced β-phase formation in poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene)

M. E. Caruso and M. Anni
Phys. Rev. B 76, 054207 – Published 16 August 2007

Abstract

The physical processes leading to solvent swelling induced glassy- to β-phase transition in poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) thin films are investigated in real time by photoluminescence and confocal spectroscopy. We show that the vapor solvent swelling induced β-phase formation takes place in much shorter times (few minutes) than the one usually employed in literature (several hours). Moreover, we show that the swelling is faster if the solvent mainly interacts with the PF8 aromatic rings (toluene) than with the octyl chains (iso-octane). On the contrary, no swelling is caused by nonsolvents such as n-butylic alcohol. Finally, we demonstrate that the β-phase formation is due to athermal (simultaneous) nucleation followed by diffusion controlled one dimensional crystallization.

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  • Received 11 April 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.76.054207

©2007 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

M. E. Caruso

  • Dipartimento di Fisica, Università del Salento, Via per Arnesano, 73100 Lecce, Italy

M. Anni*

  • Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Innovazione, Università del Salento, Via per Arnesano, 73100 Lecce, Italy

  • *Corresponding author. marco.anni@unile.it

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Vol. 76, Iss. 5 — 1 August 2007

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