Sabbatini L. (Ed.). Polymer Surface Characterization

Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014. — 308 p.Polymers permeate our everyday life more than any other materials. It is difficult to think of another material as versatile and irreplaceable as polymers in terms of applications both in consolidated and in emerging technological areas. Their use spans from the most trivial consumer goods to the most advanced microelectronics packaging, miniaturized pieces for artificial organs, high-performance coating in aerospace industry, etc.
Technological demand, moreover, requires materials not only with peculiar bulk properties but also with specific surface chemistry and structure, both generally dif- ferent from the bulk one. The combination of these two requisites makes a polymeric material suitable and unique for the job it is called to do.
In this respect, surfaces in polymers, more than any other class of materials, can be quite easily handled and engineered to a high level of sophistication by fully exploiting their chemical reactivity. Furthermore, apart from the changes intentio- nally promoted on polymer surfaces to tailor new application-oriented properties, the importance of polymer dynamics occurring on surfaces whenever they are exposed to the environment (real world) or put in contact with another material (interface) is self- evident: dramatic changes of structural and thermodynamic properties in the confi- nement area can occur, and these dramatically reflect on properties such as bonding, friction, adsorption, wettability, inertness, etc. Moreover, aging modifies the surface chemistry of polymers (as well as of any other material), thus provoking a remarkable deterioration of their properties.
In all the above cases, knowledge of both the surface chemistry and the struc- ture is mandatory to understand the behavior of polymeric materials, monitor the surface processing, and tailor and develop new surface modification strategies. A wealth of analytical techniques is available for the purpose; they are surface speci- fic, and the analyst/researcher needs a basic knowledge of their principles and pro- cedures in order to choose the most appropriate way to solve the specific problem. In this book, techniques have been selected that are well suited for characterization of surfaces/interfaces of thin polymer-based films but also of more general appli- cability in materials science. Basic principles, operative conditions, applications, performance, and limiting features are supplied, together with current advances in instrumental apparatus. Each chapter is devoted to one technique and is self- consistent; the end-of-chapter references would allow the reader a quick access to more detailed information.Introductory remarks on polymers and polymer surfaces
Investigation of polymer surfaces by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry
Polymer surface chemistry: Characterization by XPS
Attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy: A powerful tool for investigating polymer surfaces and interfaces
Scanning probe microscopy of polymers.
Polymer surface morphology: Characterization by electron microscopies
Wettability: Significance and measurement
Advances of spectroscopic ellipsometry in the analysis of thin polymer films-polymer interfaces