Microscopy (ATM, TEM, etc.)

The following methods are offered as services for the analysis of material surfaces and interfaces, as well as for bulk morphology investigations. All services are also offered for external customers.

Optical Microscopy/Light Microscopy (LM)

Microscopes: Zeiss Axioplan 2 with a digital camera and heating table and Olympus AH2

Areas of application: Investigations of the crystallization behaviour of polymers using polarized light microscopy, visualization of transparent, semi-transparent films and coatings in transmitted light mode and non-transparent flat surfaces in reflected light mode.

Remarks: Resolution up to 500 nm with limited depth of field, image area up to
several mm

Contact: Dr Ralf Thomann (+49 761 203-5379)

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)

Microscope: Multimode AFM (Veeco)

Areas of application: Investigation on the crystallization behaviour of polymers, polymer blends, block copolymers as well as metals, nanocomposites, biomaterials, etc.

Remarks: Resolution down to 0.1 nm, image area maximum 16 µm, not only surface but also bulk analysis of samples by microtomy can be performed.

Contact: Dr Ralf Thomann (+49 761 203-5379

Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM)

Microscope: Quanta 250 FEG (FEI) with EDX (Oxford)

Areas of application: analysis of surfaces, microtomed samples, wet samples

Remarks: Resolution up to 1 nm depending on the electron density of the samples. EDX, SE and BSE detection

Contact: Dr Ralf Thomann (+49 761 203-5379)

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)

Microscope: Amray 1610 Turbo scanning

Areas of application: Investigation of conductive or gold sputtered surfaces

Remarks: Resolution up to 5 nm depending on the electron density of the examined samples.

Contact: Dr Ralf Thomann (+49 761 203-5379)

Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)

Microscope: LEO 912 OMEGA (Zeiss)

Areas of application: Investigation of nanoparticles, morphologies of semicrystalline polymers, polymer blends, block copolymers, composites etc.

Contact: Dr Ralf Thomann (+49 761 203-5379)

Microtomy at room temperature and cryo microtomy

Devices: ULTRACUT UCT (Leica) with cryo chamber EM FCS (Leica)

Field of application: Preparation of very thin layers for TEM investigations, and

trimmed sample surfaces for AFM and SEM investigations

Contact: Dr Ralf Thomann (+49 761 203-5379)

All photos: FMF