ANALYSIS OF THE NANOPHASE STRUCTURE OF SEMICRYSTALLINE POLYMERS WITH ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY, MICROCALORIMETRY AND TEMPERATURE-MODULATED CALOREMETRY (TMC)

摘要

Semicrystalline, polymeric materials consist usually of metastable aggregates of strongly coupled microphases or nanophases with their constituent, micrometer-long, flexible molecules traversing multiple phase domains. The AFM can identify the nanophase structures as they appear on the surface of a sample. The newly developed MC can then identify thermal conductivity and also diffusivity, thermomechanical properties, glass transitions, and melting on a micrometer and smaller scale by analyzing the areas identified by AFM. The TMC, in turn, can analyze micro-to-milligram quantities for the simultaneous presence of thermodynamically reversible and irreversible processes. Local and global equilibria can be identified and quantitatively assessed.