Beyond nothingness in the formation and functional relevance of voids in polymer films

Voids, often overlooked as mere nothingness, are ubiquitous in nanomaterials and significantly impact their properties. This research integrates electron tomography, morphometry, graph theory, and molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the formation and functional relevance of interconnected nanovoids in polymer films, specifically polyamide membranes used for molecular separation. Three-dimensional electron tomography reveals nanovoid formation via oligomer coalescence, a process supported by simulations. Void analysis provides crucial inputs for accurately predicting methanol permeance. Graph theory analysis reveals a correlation between the structural rigidity of the void network and the membrane's apparent modulus. This study underscores the significant influence of nanovoids on the synthesis-morphology-function relationships of complex nanomaterials.

Falon C. Kalutantirige, Jinlong He, Lehan Yao, Stephen Cotty, Shan Zhou, John W. Smith, Emad Tajkhorshid, Charles M. Schroeder, Jeffrey S. Moore, Hyosung An, Xiao Su, Ying Li, Qian Chen