Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful tool for nanoscale research of polymer materials.  Two new techniques, nanoscale thermal analysis and nanoscale IR spectroscopy, allow a more complete identification and characterization of these materials.Nanoscale thermal analysis (nano-TA) makes use of a microfabricated thermal probe to locally heat a region on a sample to above its transition temperature.  This allows monitoring spatial variations in crystallinity, molecular weight or cross linking.  Nanoscale IR spectroscopy (AFM-IR) couples a pulsed tunable IR source with an AFM.  The AFM is used to measure the thermal expansion of a sample caused by infrared absorption.  This expansion results in excitation of the contact resonant modes of the AFM cantilever providing both mechanical and chemical information about the sample.  By analyzing the various absorption bands of a sample, unknown polymer materials can be identified with high spatial resolution and information complementary to nano-TA can be obtained.

Polymer characterization and identification via AFM based chemical, mechanical, and thermal analysis

244th National Meeting (2012)

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