Many of our clients are manufacturers of polymer films for use in medical packaging, food packaging, consumer goods, and other applications. In order to meet performance requirements, these films are often a blend of several different polymers, i.e. they are multi-component blends. Different components will lend different properties to the film; for example, one polymer may be used for impact resistance, and another for oxygen barrier properties, etc. The film structure that is achieved during the polymer blending and film formation process becomes critical to achieving

AFM image of the internal structure of a polymer film in cross-section, 10 micrometer scan size. The edge of the film (the "skin") is visible to the left.

the desired performance. Structures are usually on the nanometer size scale, which means a high resolution microscopy technique, such as AFM, is needed to measure the features. One advantage of AFM is that it can be used to examine both the surface (upper image) and internal (lower image) structure, and in the case presented here it becomes clear that the size of the surface features present do not correspond to the size of the internal features. This is due to the "skin effect", which is important to consider when targeting certain performance characteristics for a film. Surface structure typically does not reflect bulk structure due to surface energetics, oxidation, diffusion, and other physicochemical processes.

PolyInsight has been exploring the world of social media to help get the word out about our lab services. These internet tools can help you keep in touch with colleagues around the world. Trying following us on: