Conformational Analysis of Single Polymer Chain

The various properties that are characteristic of polymer materials originate from the large degree of freedom of a polymer chain. Indeed, during recent years the statistical conformation and dynamics of polymer chains have been the most important issues in polymer physics, and have been studied extensively by many research groups from both theoretical and experimental viewpoints. The development of atomic force microscopy (AFM) enabled direct observations to be made of the conformation of individual polymer chains adsorbed onto an atomically flat surface [59-62]. However, it is difficult to observe the conformation of a single chain in an actual bulk medium because 

The size of the observed volume was 1250 X 1250 X 600 nm. Reprinted with permission from Ref [64] 2012, Royal Society of Chemist.  

Fluorescence microscopy is an effective technique for studying the structure of polymer blend systems, as it not only reveals the quantitative spatial distribution of polymer components but also provides molecular information from the fluorescence spectrum and decay curve. Real-space observation in three dimensions with high time-resolution can reveal the detailed structure and formation process of the 

1 Birks, J.B. (1970) Photophysics of Aromatic Molecules, Wiley-Interscience, New York. 

2 Turro, N.J. (1991) Modern Molecular Photochemistry, University Science Books, Mill Valley, CA. 

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