Scanning tunneling microscopy polymers

Maganov SN, Cantow HJ, Donnet JB, Characterization of surfaces of carbon fibers by scanning tunneling microscopy. Polymer Bulletin, 23(6), 555-562, 1990. 

A number of techniques have been employed to examine free volume properties of polymers. These include small angle x-ray scattering and neutron diffraction that have been used to determine denisty fluctuations to deduce free volume size distributions [4-7]. Photochromic labelling techniques by site specific probes have been developed to monitor the rate of photoisomerizations of the probes and from this deduce free volume distributions [8-11]. Additional probing methods used to probe voids and defects in materials such as scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and... 

De Feyter S, De Schryver FC (2003) Two-dimensional supramolecular self-assembly probed by scanning tunneling microscopy. Chem Soc Rev 32 393 Ernst K-H (2006) Supramolecular surface chirahty. Top Curr Chem 265 209 Perez-Garcia L, Amabrlino DB (2007) Spontaneous resolution, whence and wither from enantiomorphic solids to chiral liquid crystals, monolayers and macro- and supramolecular polymers and assemblies. Chem Soc Rev 36 941... 

Fig. 4.4. Scanning tunneling microscopy image of polymer-coated Pdssi nanocrystals. The nanocrystals are seen as fluffy balls against the plane background of the graphite substrate. The inset shows a high-resolution electron micrograph (HRTEM) of an individual...

SECM involves the measurement of the current through an ultramicroelectrode (UME) (an electrode with a radius, a, of the order of a few nm to 25 (zm) when it is held or moved in a solution in the vicinity of a substrate. Substrates, which can be solid surfaces of different types (e.g., glass, metal, polymer, biological material) or liquids (e.g., mercury, immiscible oil), perturb the electrochemical response of the tip, and this perturbation provides information about the nature and properties of the substrate. The development of SECM depended on previous work on the use of ultramicroelectrodes in electrochemistry and the application of piezoelectric elements to position a tip, as in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Certain aspects of SECM behavior also have analogies in electrochemical thin-layer cells and arrays of interdigitated electrodes. 

The development of local probe techniques such as Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) or Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and related methods during the past fifteen years (Nobel price for physics 1986 to H. Rohrer and G. Binning) has opened a new window to locally study of interface phenomena on solid state surfaces (metals, semiconductors, superconductors, polymers, ionic conductors, insulators etc.) at an atomic level. The in-situ application of local probe methods in different systems (UHV, gas, or electrochemical conditions) belongs to modem nanotechnology and has two different aspects. 

R. Yang, D.F. Evans, L. Christensen and A. Hendrickson, Scanning tunneling microscopy evidence of semicrystalline and helical conducting polymer structure, J. Phys. Chem., 1990, 94, 6117. 

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