Structure of Poly(vinylidene difluoride) Solutions in Acetone

Light scattering structural studies of poly(vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF) solutions in acetone have been carried out. They reveal the pronounced peaks in the wide-angle scattering profiles at polymer weight concentrations from 0.5% to 20%. The angular positions of the peaks are found to depend substantially on polymer concentration:  the greater is the concentration, the larger the scattering angle corresponding to the peak maximum. These observations point to the fact that ordered polymer microstructures arise in the solutions investigated. A theoretical analysis of the experimental data suggests that the structure of PVDF−acetone solutions can be represented by a set of randomly oriented domains consisting of ordered bunches of the fiberlike constituents. Correlations of the temperature and concentration behavior of the light scattering peaks with the dimension characteristics of the structural domains are analyzed.