Nanocomposites

2Morphological Characterization Techniques for Nano-Reinforced Polymers

Adoté Sitou BLIVI¹, Benhui FAN², Djimédo KONDO³ and Fahmi BEDOUI¹

¹ Université de technologie de Compiègne, Sorbonne University, France

² CentraleSupélec, Paris-Saclay University, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

³ Institut Jean Le Rond d’Alembert, Sorbonne University, Paris, France

Nano-reinforced polymers are considered to be heterogeneous materials for which the heterogeneity is of nanometric size. In this case, their morphological characterization requires the use of experimental tools that are capable of investigating these scales. The microstructure characterization techniques that can meet this requirement are transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) at small and wide angles. These two observation techniques are complementary. Indeed, TEM ensures a global and direct observation of the microstructure while XRD allows a so-called indirect observation, at smaller scales than TEM. XRD makes it possible to determine characteristic parameters which can be inaccessible to the TEM, such as intermolecular and intramolecular distances.

2.1. Transmission electron microscopy

Among the 2D observation techniques of the microstructure of polymer matrix nanocomposites, TEM seems to be the most suitable. It enables a direct observation of the microstructure with a sufficiently accurate resolution to determine the size of nanoparticles and aggregates. TEM observations require the preparation of samples ...