Fiber studies characterization techniques

Microscopic techniques are extensively used to study the surface morphology of reinforcing fibers. The characterization of microstructure of polymer fibers provides an insight into stmcture-property relationship of the fiber. Microscopy techniques have been employed for the... 

As the analytical, synthetic, and physical characterization techniques of the chemical sciences have advanced, the scale of material control moves to smaller sizes. Nanoscience is the examination of objects—particles, liquid droplets, crystals, fibers—with sizes that are larger than molecules but smaller than structures commonly prepared by photolithographic microfabrication. The definition of nanomaterials is neither sharp nor easy, nor need it be. Single molecules can be considered components of nanosystems (and are considered as such in fields such as molecular electronics and molecular motors). So can objects that have dimensions of >100 nm, even though such objects can be fabricated—albeit with substantial technical difficulty—by photolithography. We will define (somewhat arbitrarily) nanoscience as the study of the preparation, characterization, and use of substances having dimensions in the range of 1 to 100 nm. Many types of chemical systems, such as self-assembled monolayers (with only one dimension small) or carbon nanotubes (buckytubes) (with two dimensions small), are considered nanosystems. 

Techniques of optical microscopy (OM) are well known and often used for the examination of fibers and yams from archaeological textiles. Many texts provide the fundamentals of the technique (e.g. 40-43). Some manuscripts describe the methods that may be employed in the study of archaeological materials in particular (44, 45), while others report the results of optical microscopic examination in identification and characterization of archaeological fibers (e.g., 12, 46). 

There are several major areas of interfacial phenomena to which infrared spectroscopy has been applied that are not treated extensively in this volume. Most of these areas have established bodies of literature of their own. In many of these areas, the replacement of dispersive spectrometers by FT instruments has resulted in continued improvement in sensitivity, and in the interpretation of phenomena at the molecular level. Among these areas are the characterization of polymer surfaces with ATR (127-129) and diffuse reflectance (130) sampling techniques transmission IR studies of the surfaces of powdered samples with adsorbed gases (131-136) alumina(137.138). silica (139). and catalyst (140) surfaces diffuse reflectance studies of organo- modified mineral and glass fiber surfaces (141-143) metal overlayer enhanced ATR (144) and spectroelectrochemistry (145-149). 

Lozano-Castello D, Raymundo-Pinero E, Cazorla-Amoros D, Linares-Solano A, Muller M, and Riekel C. Microbeam small angle x-ray scattering (pSAXS) A novel technique for the characterization of activated carbon fibers. In Rodrfguez-Reinoso F. et al., eds. Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis, Characterisation of Porous Solids VI, vol. 144, the Netherlands Elsevier Science. 2002 pp. 51-58. 

The different manufacturing techniques for highly specialized carbon products (i.e., isotropic coke, glassy carbon, and carbon fiber) are not covered by this paper. Moreover, a discussion of the multiplicity of testing methods used to study the carbonization behavior of different feedstocks and to characterize different coke qualities is also beyond the scope of this presentation. 

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