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Quantitative Compositional Mapping of Phase Separation in Thin Polymer Films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

D.A. Winesett
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695-8202
H. Ade
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695-8202
A.P. Smith
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695-8202
S. Qu
Affiliation:
Dept. Materials Science and Engineering, SUNY@Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, 11794
S. Ge
Affiliation:
Dept. Materials Science and Engineering, SUNY@Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, 11794
M. Rafailovich
Affiliation:
Dept. Materials Science and Engineering, SUNY@Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, 11794
S. Sokolov
Affiliation:
Dept. Materials Science and Engineering, SUNY@Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, 11794
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Extract

Experiments and theoretical work on spinodal decomposition of thin films of binary polymer blends indicate large changes in phase behavior and dynamics relative to the bulk behavior due to the complex interactions of the polymer-polymer, polymer-air, and polymer-substrate interfaces. Currently used techniques are able to sense growing domain sizes but are not always able to sense local two and three dimensional variations within domains. We are using a new characterization approach to these thin films utilizing the Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscope (STXM) at beamline XIA at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS)2. We extract component thickness maps of each polymer in a sample region. This allows for quantitative investigation of the dynamics of polymer phase separation and should allow the determination of important parameters affecting the domain formation in these thin films.

Type
Compositional Mapping With High Spatial Resolution
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

1.Zhang, X., et al., J. Struc. Biol. 116 (1996)335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. The authors would like to thank J. Kirz and C. Jacobsen for construction and maintenance of the Beamline XIA STXM at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) with support from the Office of Biological and Enviromental Research, US DOE contract DE-FG02-89ER60858.Google Scholar