Ye J., Reading K., Kjoller K., Shetty R.
Anasys Instruments, US
Keywords: nanoscale thermal analysis
The goal of this work was to characterize a blend PA6 and PET using a combination of Raman Spectroscopy and AFM techniques. The Raman Microscopy Image revealed the general structure of a PA6 and PET Blend but an D-3100 AFM phase image revealed complex sub-structures not seen in the Raman image due to its resolution limit of 500nm. Given that the AFM suffers from an inability to get chemical information, nanoscale thermal analysis was performed to identify the sub-structures from their phase transition temperatures. This retained the AFM’s high lateral resolution while adding the ability to identify the components in the blend via their phase transition temperatures at sub-100nm resolution. Thus nanoscale thermal analyis permitted us to identify structure at 100nm resolution which was not visible in a Raman microscopy study due to its 500nm resolution limit. The end result revealed that the PA6-PET was a much more complex chemical blend than revealed by the Raman image but the complementary information provided by nanoscale thermal analysis enabled us characterize the complexity of the blend.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 1, Nanotechnology 2008: Materials, Fabrication, Particles, and Characterization – Technical Proceedings of the 2008 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Volume 1
Published: June 1, 2008
Pages: 877 - 881
Industry sector: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing
Topic: Materials Characterization & Imaging
ISBN: 978-1-4200-8503-7