Nanometer scale morphologies

CFPs are normally manufactured as submillimetric beads or powders (Figure 2) [15]. A convenient simplified comparison between the micrometer and nanometer scale morphology of gel-type and macroreticular resins is illustrated in Figure 3. 

C -CP-MAS NMR provides subtle information about the degree of solvation of the polymer chains of a CFP in a given solvent and consequently it may be qualitatively correlated with the nanometer scale morphology of the polymer matrix. In fact, the prerequisite that enables a polymer framework to develop a nanoporosity is the ability of the polymer chains and its pendants to be suitably solvated by the liquid medium [26-28]. Therefore, C -CP-MAS NMR spectra provide the basis for a first level screening of the possibility of a CFP in a given solvent to be employed as an hexo-template, able to accommodate metal nanoclusters chemically produced in its interior (see below and Ref. [29]). 

For macroreticular CFPs, the accessibility of reagents and removal of the products is guaranteed by the intrinsic micrometer- and nanometer-scale morphology of the support. For gel-type CFPs, the same positive features are enabled by the proper choice of cross-linking degree and swelling medium. 

D) objects, allows a fine control of the nanometer-scale morphology, which is a relevant parameter in the fabrication of efficient Pc-based devices. 

In the present contribution, the possibilities of local in-situ STM and SFM probing at non-ideal electrodes are illustrated with recent SPM work performed in the electrochemistry group of the University of Bern STM studies of underpotential deposition of Pb and Tl at non ideal (chemically polished) Ag(l 11) electrodes are presented to show the influence of the nanometer-scale morphology of the non-ideal Ag(lll) substrate upon the local progress of adsorbate formation and the long-term stability of the resulting adsorbates. More detailed reports of the experiments are given elsewhere [3,4]. 

Information on the morphology of the nanohybrid sorbents also was revealed with SEM analysis. Dispersed spherical polymer-silica particles with a diameter of 0.3-5 pm were observed. Every particle, in one s turn, is a porous material with size of pores to 200 nm and spherical particles from 100 nm to 500 nm. Therefore, the obtained samples were demonstrated to form a nanometer - scale porous structure. 

As is known, microscale friction and wear is important in microtribology. However, it is not easy to get real friction force on micro/nano scale during the tests. The surface morphology at nanometer scale, the scanning direction of the FFM, etc., have significant effects on friction force measurement. Even nowadays for commercial SPM we are not quite sure if the friction force we get is a real one or not. 

Recent demands for polymeric materials request them to be multifunctional and high performance. Therefore, the research and development of composite materials have become more important because single-polymeric materials can never satisfy such requests. Especially, nanocomposite materials where nanoscale fillers are incorporated with polymeric materials draw much more attention, which accelerates the development of evaluation techniques that have nanometer-scale resolution." To date, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been widely used for this purpose, while the technique never catches mechanical information of such materials in general. The realization of much-higher-performance materials requires the evaluation technique that enables us to investigate morphological and mechanical properties at the same time. AFM must be an appropriate candidate because it has almost comparable resolution with TEM. Furthermore, mechanical properties can be readily obtained by AFM due to the fact that the sharp probe tip attached to soft cantilever directly touches the surface of materials in question. Therefore, many of polymer researchers have started to use this novel technique." In this section, we introduce the results using the method described in Section 21.3.3 on CB-reinforced NR. 

The reduction of the long-range diffusivity, Di by a factor of four with respect to bulk water can be attributed to the random morphology of the nanoporous network (i.e., effects of connectivity and tortuosity of nanopores). For comparison, the water self-diffusion coefficient in Nafion measured by PFG-NMR is = 0.58 x 10 cm s at T = 15. Notice that PFG-NMR probes mobilities over length scales > 0.1 /rm. Comparison of QENS and PFG-NMR studies thus reveals that the local mobility of water in Nafion is almost bulk-like within the confined domains at the nanometer scale and that the effective water diffusivity decreases due to the channeling of water molecules through the network of randomly interconnected and tortuous water-filled domains. ... 

Overall, the correlation functions discussed in detail in Malek et al. provide valuable structural information at the nanometer scale that allows refining the picture of fhe phase-segregafed cafalysf layer morphology, lonomer... 

The results obtained clearly demonstrate that sulfate ions promote the consolidation of titania morphology in nanometer scales and the formation of a crystalline, anatase phase in aerogels dried using supercritical carbon dioxide. This trend is consistently demonstrated by adsorption experiments as well as SAXS and XRD studies. The presence of platinum promotes the formation of a fine polymeric structure of titania in nanometric scales. After calcination all samples exhibit a similar morphology, yet with a notable difference in texture parameters. 

Conductive polymers have received increasing interest in the last decade due to their potential applications. The synthesis of molecular conductors, for example, is a field of intensive research with the purpose of producing objects in the nanometer scale. Therefore, control of the morphology of conducting polymers is very challenging for the production of molecular wires (nanowires) or tubes. Appropriate templates for the confined polymerization of conductive polymers are required to give them a controlled shape and dimension. 

A scanning force microscope (SFM) has proven to be an instrument that can image biomedical systems at high resolution (in the nanometer scale) and obtain time-dependent dynamic information about their surface morphology in various (air, liquid, vacuum) environments [1,2],... 

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