Polymer Microscopy
A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Analysis and Characterization".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 October 2020) | Viewed by 6785
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Modern microscopic technologies have become indispensable for research and development in almost all scientific fields. Zooming-in, and making even the smallest structure details visible, is of crucial importance for material designs and understanding of structure/property relationships. Polymers often possess an already complex morphology, which depends not only on their molecular structure, but also on the processing parameters, and which becomes even more complex when these polymers are mixed with other polymers, with fillers or with, e.g., semiconductive components in micro- and nanodimension.
Well-known techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) or light microscopy (LM) are still the basis for polymer microscopy but have developed rapidly in recent years, becoming more versatile and adaptable according to the type of materials to be investigated. For example, electron tomography using TEM tilt series or serial sections from SEM/focused ion beam measurements now provides insights into the third dimension; material properties can be quantitatively determined in the nanometer range using new AFM techniques, and in situ microscopy makes the formation of polymer structures understandable, to name just a few developments.
The scope of this Special Edition includes developments and applications of new microscopy techniques, but also investigations of interesting polymer systems with conventional microscopy methods. Therefore, polymer researchers focusing on material designs as well as researchers working on new technique developments are equally encouraged to participate in this Special Issue.
Dr. Yi Thomann
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
- Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
- Atomic force microscopy (AFM)
- Light microscopy (LM)
- Focused ion beam–SEM (FIB-SEM)
- Serial block-face SEM (SBF-SEM)
- Electron tomography
- In situ microscopy
- Mechanical properties
- Polymer blends
- Block copolymers
- Polymer networks
- Polymer composites
- Polymer crystallization
- Biopolymers
- Organic electronics
- Structure/property relationship
- Image contrast in hydrocarbon materials
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