Revealing microscale bulk structure in polymer-carbon nanocomposites using spin-echo SANS

Abstract

We use spin-echo small-angle neutron scattering (SESANS) to probe the hierarchy of structures present in carbon-polymer nanocomposites with length scales spanning over three orders of magnitude, from 10 nm to 16 μm. The data processing and reduction shows a unified approach across two SESANS instruments (TU Delft and Larmor ISIS neutron source) and yields consistent data that is able to be modelled using the conventional models in freely available software such as SasView. With this approach we are able to extend the measured length scales by over an order of magnitude compared to traditional scattering methods. This yields information about bulk structure that is unavailable from conventional scattering techniques (SANS/SAXS) and points to a way in which to interrogate and investigate polymer nanocomposites routinely across multiple length scales.