We present in situ tracking of silica nanoparticle (NP) migration from a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) melt into interlamellar region using in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM). Our results confirm the previous hypothesis that NPs migrate into the interlamellar regions at crystallization growth rates smaller than a critical value under isothermal conditions. Under these slow crystallization conditions, bare silica NPs are rejected as defects by the growing crystal of PEO, and the in situ imaging on the large (50 nm) NPs helps track the migration into the amorphous zones. We extend this AFM technique to estimate lamellar growth rates that correlate with spherulite growth rates determined by polarized light optical microscopy (PLOM) but at smaller undercoolings than are typical for PLOM.

中文翻译：

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半结晶聚合物中纳米粒子迁移的原位原子力显微镜跟踪

我们使用原位原子力显微镜 (AFM)对从聚 (环氧乙烷) (PEO) 熔体中的二氧化硅纳米粒子 (NP) 迁移到层间区域进行原位跟踪。我们的结果证实了先前的假设，即 NP 在等温条件下以小于临界值的结晶生长速率迁移到层间区域。在这些缓慢的结晶条件下，裸露的二氧化硅纳米颗粒被 PEO 晶体的生长排除为缺陷，而原位对大型（50 nm）纳米粒子成像有助于跟踪迁移到非晶区。我们扩展了这种 AFM 技术以估计与由偏振光光学显微镜 (PLOM) 确定的球晶生长速率相关的层状生长速率，但过冷度比 PLOM 的典型值更小。