Combinatorial methods for investigations in polymer materials science

We review recent advances in the development of combinatorial methods for polymer characterization. Applied to materials research, combinatorial methodologies allow efficient testing of structure-property hypotheses (fundamental characterization) as well as accelerated development of new materials (materials discovery). Recent advances in library preparation and high-throughput screening have extended combinatorial methods to a wide variety of phenomena encountered in polymer processing. We first present techniques for preparing continuous-gradient polymer "libraries" with controlled variations in temperature, composition, thickness, and substrate surface energy. These libraries are then used to characterize fundamental properties such as polymer-blend phase behavior, thin-film dewetting, block-copolymer order-disorder transitions, and cell interactions with surfaces of biocompatible polymers.