Eur. Phys. J. E (2019) 42: 93
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2019-11859-x

Regular Article

Broadband dielectric spectroscopy to validate architectural features in Type-A polymers: Revisiting the poly(glycidyl phenyl ether) case

¹ Materials Physics Center, CSIC-UPV/EHU, Paseo Manuel Lardizábal 5, 20018, San Sebastian, Spain
² Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Paseo Manuel Lardizábal 4, 20018, San Sebastian, Spain
³ Departamento de Física de Materiales, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Apartado 1072, 20080, San Sebastian, Spain
⁴ IKERBASQUE - Basque Foundation for Science, María Díaz de Haro 3, E-48013, Bilbao, Spain

^* e-mail: danielenrique.martinezt@ehu.eus
^** e-mail: angel.alegria@ehu.eus

Received: 23 April 2019
Accepted: 24 June 2019
Published online: 22 July 2019

Abstract

Broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) is a powerful technique that allows studying the molecular dynamics of materials containing polar entities. Among a vast set of different applications, BDS can be used as a complementary tool in polymer synthesis. In this work, we will show how BDS can be used to validate architectural features in Type-A polymers, those having a net dipole moment component along the chain contour. Specifically, we will focus on the evaluation of the dielectric relaxation of poly(glycidyl phenyl ether) (PGPE) samples designed and synthesized with a variety of topologies and regio-orders: linear regio-regular chains synthesized from monofunctional and bifunctional initiators, macrocyclic regio-regular chains, and linear and macrocyclic regio-irregular chains. Our study highlights the impact of using BDS as a complementary characterization technique for providing topological details of polymers, which are otherwise not possible with many traditional techniques (e.g., NMR and mass spectrometry).