The determination of diffuse-boundary thicknesses of polymers by small-angle X-ray scattering

Thermal density fluctuations within phases and finite interphase widths lead to systematic deviations from Porod's law. The validity of present methods used to analyze these deviations and determine diffuse-boundary widths is determined. In view of the inadequacies found in these methods, a simple yet accurate method is proposed to determine the diffuse-boundary width from direct graphical analysis of slit-smeared intensity data. The diffuse interface is modelled by a sigmoidal-gradient model which is justified on thermodynamic grounds, with the interphase thickness as a function of the Flory-Huggins interaction parameter.