| Abstract: | We used infrared spectroscopy to estimate the crystalline component concentration in thin films of ethylene‐co‐vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymers spin‐coated on gold and functionalized substrates. Bulk calibration methods are elaborated that allow the establishment of quantitative relationships between infrared response and the degree of crystallinity via simple equations. These equations are applied and transposed to the study of thin films in such a way as to avoid preferential orientation effects induced by adsorption. Therefore, for calibration we select groups that vibrate in the same direction and belong to the crystalline phase. Our results show a decrease of the crystalline amount in EVA9, 14, 24 and 28 thin films, as determined on the basis of infrared spectroscopy experiments. The low crystallinity degree calculated for EVA thin films is in good agreement with the reduced crystalline morphology observed by atomic force microscopy. Observed amorphization is considered to be induced by confinement (gold substrates) and interfacial interactions (functionalized substrates), which lead to a disordered chain conformation that makes crystallization less favourable. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
