Scanning probe microscopy articles within Polymer Journal

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• Original Article
  15 February 2024 | Open Access

  Melt adsorption of poly(tert-butyl methacrylate) and poly(ethyl methacrylate) on silica studied with chip nanocalorimetry

  We examined the adsorption behavior of poly(tert-butyl methacrylate) (PtBMA) and poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA), on a silica surface. Time-evolution of the degree of adsorption γ(t) was evaluated with chip nanocalorimetry. γ(t) revealed a two-step profile for both polymers. At the second stage of adsorption, the slope of γ(t) vs. log t increased as adsorption proceeded; this trend has not been reported for other polymers so far. In addition, atomic force microscopy images of the adsorbed layers revealed corresponding evolutions of the morphologies.

  • Minato Ishihara
  • , Tomoya Watanabe
  •  & Takashi Sasaki

• Original Article | 29 October 2018

  Lamellar orientation in isotactic polypropylene thin films: a complement study via grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and surface/cross-sectional imaging

  Grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray diffraction study of lamellar orientation in isotactic polypropylene thin films. Crystalline structure of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) thin films was investigated by means of grazing incident wide-angle X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Flat-on mother lamellae with orthogonal daughter lamellae form in the thin film. We propose a lamellar growth model for iPP thin films in which the crystallization progresses flat-on mother lamellae at the substrate interface to out-of-plane growth of daughter lamellae from the mother lamellae.

  • Kiminori Uchida
  • , Kazuki Mita
  •  & Atsushi Takahara

• Focus Review | 27 June 2012

  Formation of 2D structures and their transformation by external stimuli: a scanning tunneling microscopy study

  This focus review describes a brief overview of our recent achievements on the fabrication of self-assembled nanostructures and following transformation by external stimuli, such as thermal treatment, metal coordination and ultraviolet irradiation. Some stimuli-responsive organic molecules possessing alkyl tails working as adsorption and interaction sites were synthesized to allow the spontaneous formation of various two-dimensional (2D) nanopatterns on a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). The 2D molecular arrangements were investigated by using scanning tunneling microscopy at HOPG/1-phenyloctane interface.

  • Yoshihiro Kikkawa