Equipment - Polymer Morphology

1. Microscopy

1.1. Electron microscopy

• SEM microscope MAIA3 (Tescan)
  • FEG high-resolution scanning electron microscope (resolution 1 nm), optimized for investigation of polymer materials
  • HVSEM, LVSEM and Cryo-LVSEM modes: possibility of visualization frozen specimens with high content of water (polymer hydrogels, polymer micelles...)
  • SE, BSE, STEM: topographic contrast, material contrast, internal structure, elemental microanalysis
  • EDX detector (X-Max^N 20; Oxford Instruments, UK): elemental microanalysis

• SEM microscope Vega Plus TS 5135 (Tescan):
  • standard scanning electron microscope
  • SE, BSE, STEM detectors: topographic contrast, material contrast, internal structure

• TEM microscope Tecnai G2 Spirit (FEI):
  • transmission electron microscope, 120kV
  • bright/dark field (BD/DF), electron diffraction (ED), microanalysis (EDX): detailed study of internal structure of polymer materials
  • cryo-attachment: deep-frozen samples and solutions of polymer nanoparticles

1.2. Light microscopy

• standard (wide-field) light microscopy:
  • microscope DM6000 M (Leica), with microhardness tester
  • microscope Nikon80i (Nikon), with mini-tensile tester
  • equipment of both microscopes: transmitted and reflected light; polarized light; bright field, dark field, phase contrast, 3D-focus; microscopic heating stages: Mettler FP52/FP5, Linkam THMS 600/TMS 9
• laser scanning confocal microscope (shared within CBMP project):
  • inverted confocal microscope LSM FV1200 IX83 (Olympus) including PicoQuant module (PicoQuant)
  • equipment of the microscope: material microscopy (transmitted and reflected light, DIC...), biological microscopy (fluorescent LSCM, FRAP, RISC...), time-resolved microscopy and scattering (FCS, FCCS, FLIM, FLCS...)
• older microscopes:
  • microscope Zetopan Pol (Reichert)
  • stereomicroscope SMZ-2T (Nikon)

1.3. Sample preparation for microscopy

• Ultramicrotome with cryo-attachment: Ultracut UCT (Leica), EM UC7 (Leica)
• Ultramicrotome for room temperature: Ultrotome III (LKB Bromma)
• Preparation of glass knives for (ultra)microtomy: Knifemaker 7800 (LKB Bromma)
• Rapid sample freezing for TEM: EMS-002 cryo workstation/rapid immersion freezer (EMS)
• Microtomes: Sledge microtome (Meopta), Rotary microtome RM 2155 (Leica)
• Vacuum sputter coaters: SCD 050 (Balzers), SCD 050 (Leica)
• Vacuum evaporation device: JEE-4C (Jeol)

2. Micromechanical properties

• Microhardness tester VMHT AUTO man (UHL); Vickers (non-instrumented) microhardness tester; measurements of microhardness, microcreep, microplasticity
• Micro/nanohardness tester MHT (CSM); Instrumented micro/nanoindentation; measurements of indentation hardness, modulus, creep, elastic part of the indentation work...
• Mini-tensile tester – TST350 (Linkam); connected with the light microscope

3. Creep

• Macroscale tensile creep; home-made device for creep testing, connected to PC.
• Microscale indentation creep;  microindentation creep experiments are performed in our instrumented microhardness tester.