Samples: Commercial and pre-commercial Liquid Crystalline
Polyester polymerized from several monomers, all rich in aromatic
and carbonyl functionality
Issue/Problem: Two different processing routes of material
with the same nominal composition yield different mechanical characteristics.
Material with preferred properties costs more to produce.
Traditional characterization techniques failed to clearly
distinguish these materials.
X-ray microscopy demonstrated presence of four
chemically distinct phases in ‘cheap’ material, while ‘expensive’
material did not exhibit phase separation.
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