Mapping of the komplex elastic modulus of microstructured polymer samples

为了更好地理解纳米科学中的基本现象以及纳米材料和纳米技术的发展，需要对聚合物在纳米尺度下的力学性能进行研究。这对于在纳米技术的若干领域中使用的聚合物也是有效的。对于这两种仪器的机械性能的定量测定的重要缺点，即，最重要的是奥利弗和法尔的理论对于纳米压头的应用以及对于AFM的尖端的几何形状的知识的缺乏，该项目的核心是开发和验证力调制技术，作为一种具有亚微米空间分辨率的测量技术，用于确定和绘制损耗模量。与AFM和纳米压痕仪获得的结果将与其他已建立的技术，例如动态力学分析（DMA）进行比较。由于其独特的分辨率在纳米级，AFM是预定的调查和映射的局部性质的非均匀聚合物样品。研究和确定力调制技术可达到的空间分辨率，以及确定薄聚合物膜、微结构和聚合物共混物和共聚物的损耗模量，是该项目最后阶段的目标。

A better understanding of basic phenomena in the nanoscience and the development of nanomaterials and nanotechnologies implies the investigation of the mechanical properties of polymers at the nanoscale. This is valid also for polymers which are employed in several fields of the nanotechnology. To this aim only instruments with a spatial resolution in the submicrometer scale can be used, e.g. the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and the nanoindenter.Important drawbacks for the quantitative determination of the mechanical properties with both instruments, i.e. most of all the application of the theory of Oliver and Pharr for the nanoindenter and the lack of knowledge of the geometry of the tip for the AFM, will be resolved at the beginning of this project through the comparison of the measurements.The core of the project is the development and validation of the force-modulation-technique as a measuring technique with submicrometer spatial resolution for the determination and the mapping of the loss modulus. The results obtained with the AFM and with the nanoindenter will be compared with other established techniques, e.g. the Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA).Owing to its unique resolution at the nanoscale, the AFM is predestinated for the investigation and the mapping of the local properties of inhomogeneous polymer samples. The investigation and determination of the spatial resolution attainable with the force-modulation-technique and the determination of the loss modulus of thin polymer films, microstructurerd polymer blends and copolymers is the aim of the end stage of the project.