A METHOD FOR ANALYZING PROTON NMR RELAXATION DATA FROM MOTIONALLY HETEROGENEOUS POLYMER SYSTEMS

Historically, the results of studies of the motional processes present in polymers above the glass transition temperature (T-g) by proton NM R spin-lattice relaxation in either the laboratory or rotating frames (T-1 or T-1p) have shown poor agreement with the results from similar studies carried out using other techniques such as dielectric or mecha nical relaxation. We believe that this is mainly because of the compli cation of the NMR results due to magnetisation transport, either by sp in diffusion or by bulk diffusion of the polymer. We suggest a novel a pproach to the analysis of proton NMR relaxation data from a motionall y heterogeneous polymer, and show that the results of such an analysis are intrinsically reasonable and of the form expected for dielectric or mechanical relaxation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.