Measuring the Interfacial Thickness of Immiscible Polymer Blends by Nano-probing of Atomic Force Microscopy

Tian-Tian Li; Si-Bo Cheng; Lian-Fang Feng; Xue-Ping Gu; Cai-Liang Zhang; Guo-Hua Hu

doi:10.1007/s10118-022-2682-8

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Measuring the Interfacial Thickness of Immiscible Polymer Blends by Nano-probing of Atomic Force Microscopy

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2022-03-28

- Measuring the Interfacial Thickness of Immiscible Polymer Blends by Nano-probing of Atomic Force Microscopy
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 40, Issue 4, Pages: 421-430(2022)
- Affiliations：
  
  a.State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  b.Institute of Zhejiang University–Quzhou, Quzhou 324000, China
  c.CNRS-Université de Lorraine, Laboratoire Réactions et Génie des Procédés (LRGP, CNRS UMR 7274), 1 rue Grandville, BP 20451, 54001 Nancy, France
- Author bio：
  
  zhangcailiang@zju.edu.cn (C.L.Z.)
  guo-hua.hu@univ-lorraine.fr (G.H.H.)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-022-2682-8
  CLC：
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Tian-Tian Li, Si-Bo Cheng, Lian-Fang Feng, et al. Measuring the Interfacial Thickness of Immiscible Polymer Blends by Nano-probing of Atomic Force Microscopy. [J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science 40(4):421-430(2022)
DOI：

Tian-Tian Li, Si-Bo Cheng, Lian-Fang Feng, et al. Measuring the Interfacial Thickness of Immiscible Polymer Blends by Nano-probing of Atomic Force Microscopy. [J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science 40(4):421-430(2022) DOI： 10.1007/s10118-022-2682-8.

摘要

Abstract

Immiscible polymer blends are an important family of polymer materials. The interfacial thickness between different phases is a very important parameter that dictates, to a great extent, the morphology and properties of such a blend. This work explores and optimizes an up-to-date atomic force microscopy (AFM) of type NanoIR2,TM, system in order to quantitatively measure the interfacial thickness of immiscible polymer blends. This system is equipped with two nano-probes capable of detecting the response of a material to an infrared pulse called AFM-infrared spectroscopy mode (AFM-IR) or conducting resonance called AFM-Lorentz Contact Resonance mode (AFM-LCR), respectively. Its potential for quantitatively measuring the interfacial thickness of immiscible polymer blends is evaluated using blends composed of polyamide 6 (PA6) and polyolefin elastomer (POE) in the presence or absence of a POE containing maleic anhydride (POE-,g,-MAH) as a compatibilizer. Surface roughness affects adversely the signal intensity and consequently an accurate measurement of the interfacial thickness. Optimum sample surface preparation procedures are proposed.

关键词

Keywords

Polymer blendsInterfacial thicknessAtomic force microscopyNano-probingSurface roughness

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