Advanced experimental techniques in polymer thermodynamics
Scanning transitiometry is at the center of several new developments to generate original unprecedented data over extended ranges of temperatures and pressures. Simultaneous in situ spectroscopic readings noticeably extend the performance of scanning transitiometry. The modulation of temperature superimposed to temperature scanning for thermal analysis is a major step forward to unambiguously identify glass transitions from other overlapping phenomena. The combination of a weighing technique (vibrating-wire technique) with a pressure decay technique (pVT technique) allows us to estimate simultaneously, in situ on the same polymer sample, the gas solubility and the concomitant polymer swelling.