Evaluating Mechanical Properties of Polymers at the Nanoscale Level via Atomic Force Microscopy-Infrared Spectroscopy

The characterization and the optimization of packaging materials require accessing their composition with nanometric precision. A possible solution comes from atomic force microscopy-infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR), capable of acquiring IR spectra with a spatial resolution surpassing the limit of infrared spectroscopy by far. Differentiating polyolefins, a typical component of packaging films, is complicated by the large similarity in the infrared response of this class of materials. Here, we propose a method with which to improve domains differentiation based on the analysis of IR spectra and viscoelastic properties, extracted via a routine similar to that employed in contact-resonance AFM.