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Published on: August 11, 2020
Visualization of Polymer Crystallization by In Situ Combination of Atomic Force Microscopy and Fast Scanning
Rui Zhang1, Evgeny Zhuravlev2,3,4, René Androsch5
1Institute of Physics and Competence Centre CALOR, University of Rostock, 18051 Rostock, Germany. rui.zhang@uni-rostock.de.
Abstract:
A chip-based fast scanning calorimeter (FSC) is used as a fast hot-stage in an atomic force microscope (AFM). This way, the morphology of materials with a resolution from micrometers to nanometers after fast thermal treatments becomes accessible. An FSC can treat the sample isothermally or at heating and cooling rates up to 1 MK/s. The short response time of the FSC in the order of milliseconds enables rapid changes from scanning to isothermal modes and vice versa. Additionally, FSC provides crystallization/melting curves of the sample just imaged by AFM. We describe a combined AFM-FSC device, where the AFM sample holder is replaced by the FSC chip-sensor. The sample can be repeatedly annealed at pre-defined temperatures and times and the AFM images can be taken from exactly the same spot of the sample. The AFM-FSC combination is used for the investigation of crystallization of polyamide 66 (PA 66), poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK), poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL).
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