Nanoscale Patterning in Crosslinked Methacrylate Copolymer Networks: An Atomic Force Microscopy Study

To understand the properties of materials, their phase structure must be established. It has been difficult in previous work to visualize the heterogeneous cross-linked structure of methacrylate-based networks. In this work, nano-sized phases with worm-like features were detected in the surfaces of model crosslinked methacrylate copolymer containing hydrophobic/hydrophilic co-mono-mers using tapping mode atomic force microscopy/phase imaging technique. The effects of different surface-contact covers on the height and phase-contrast images of model resin surfaces were also studied. Based on the experimental data, the identification of phase domains was proposed.