Application of Grazing-Incidence X-ray Scattering to Kinetic Study on Polymer Crystallization in Film-Forming Processes

A grazing-incidence X-ray scattering (GIXS) method utilizing synchrotron radiation (SR) is effective to investigate structure-kinetics relationships for softmeterials in thin films with thicknesses below 1 mm. It is well known that crystalline polymers form hirachical sturucture ranging from nanometers to micrometers. The hirachical sturucture typically consis of lamellar crystals and polymer chains in the amorphous state. In order to control mechanical, optical and electrical properties of polymer thin films, crystallization kinetics in film formation processes should be controlled on the molecular and lamellar scales. A time-resolved measurement system of grazing-incidence small-angle and wide-angle X-ray scattering (GISWAXS) has been established at BL45XU (RIKEN Structurural Biology I) beamline in SPring-8 (RIKEN, Japan) . In my short presentation, kinetic study on polymer crystallization in spin-coating film-forming processes will be introduced as an application of GIXS.