Dresden 2009 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 10: Polymer Physics I

CPP 10.3: Vortrag

Montag, 23. März 2009, 18:30–18:45, ZEU 114

Particle-Related Microstructural Investigations of Polymer-Nanoparticle Composites using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Stereology — •Markus Ziehmer, Ulrich Müller, Jörg Baller, and Roland Sanctuary — University of Luxembourg, Physics of Condensed Matter and Advanced Materials, 162a, Avenue de la Faïencerie, L-1511 Luxembourg

Epoxy polymers containing nanoparticle fillers represent just one of the manifold possibilities of constructing nanocomposite systems which have achieved great scientific and technical interest during the last decade. A lot of work has been done in order to understand the macroscopic physical properties of such functional materials. At a certain step, knowledge about the particle-related microstructure is indispensable. Thus, suitable microscopic techniques are necessary. Usually, solely Transmission Electron Microcopy (TEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) are performed, although both methods show some well-known intrinsic shortcomings. Modern SEM has the means to overcome these problems and can fill the information gap between TEM and AFM measurements, even for difficult materials like polymer-nanoparticle mixtures. Low-voltage SEM provides the opportunity to sample rather thin surface layers. The particles can easily be identified. Established stereological methods can be used to calculate more reliable interparticle distances and to look at the spatial particle distributions. We report about first experiments and results performed on DGEBA/DETA systems filled with different contents of alumina and silica nanoparticles.