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Mechanical characterization of polymeric thin films by atomic force microscopy based techniques

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Abstract

Polymeric thin films have been awakening continuous and growing interest for application in nanotechnology. For such applications, the assessment of their (nano)mechanical properties is a key issue, since they may dramatically vary between the bulk and the thin film state, even for the same polymer. Therefore, techniques are required for the in situ characterization of mechanical properties of thin films that must be nondestructive or only minimally destructive. Also, they must also be able to probe nanometer-thick ultrathin films and layers and capable of imaging the mechanical properties of the sample with nanometer lateral resolution, since, for instance, at these scales blends or copolymers are not uniform, their phases being separated. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been proposed as a tool for the development of a number of techniques that match such requirements. In this review, we describe the state of the art of the main AFM-based methods for qualitative and quantitative single-point measurements and imaging of mechanical properties of polymeric thin films, illustrating their specific merits and limitations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Basic and Applied Sciences for Engineering, University of Rome Sapienza, Via A. Scarpa 16, 00161, Rome, Italy

    Daniele Passeri & Marco Rossi

  2. Centro di Ricerca per le Nanotecnologie Applicate all’Ingegneria della Sapienza (CNIS), University of Rome Sapienza, Piazzale A. Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Marco Rossi

  3. Department of Chemical Sciences and Technologies, University of Rome Tor Vergata and Micro and Nano-structured Systems Laboratory (MINASlab), Via della Ricerca Scientifica, 00133, Rome, Italy

    Emanuela Tamburri & Maria Letizia Terranova

Authors
  1. Daniele Passeri
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  2. Marco Rossi
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  3. Emanuela Tamburri
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  4. Maria Letizia Terranova
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Correspondence to Daniele Passeri.

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Published in the topical collection Characterization of Thin Films and Membranes with guest editors Daniel Mandler and Pankaj Vadgama.

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Passeri, D., Rossi, M., Tamburri, E. et al. Mechanical characterization of polymeric thin films by atomic force microscopy based techniques. Anal Bioanal Chem 405, 1463–1478 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-012-6419-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-012-6419-3

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