Polymer Microscopy: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials

Polymer Microscopy, Third Edition, is a comprehensive and practical guide to the study of the microstructure of polymers, and is the result of the authors' many years of academic and industrial experience. To address the needs of students and professionals from a variety of backgrounds, introductory chapters deal with the basic concepts of both polymer morphology and processing and microscopy and imaging theory. The core of the book is more applied, with many examples of specimen preparation and image interpretation leading to materials characterization. Microscopy is applied to the characterization of a wide range of polymer systems, including fibers, films, engineering resins and plastics, composites, nanocomposites, polymer blends, emulsions and liquid crystalline polymers. Light microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy techniques are all considered, as are emerging techniques such as compositional mapping in which microscopy is combined with spectroscopy. This extensively updated and revised Third Edition closes with a problem solving guide, which gives a systematic framework for deciding on suitable approaches to the characterization of polymer microstructure.