Title / Titre :
Structural Investigations of Polymer and Ceramic Materials at Submicroscopic Levels

Author(s) / Auteur(s) :
Abdoulaye Doucouré

Address / Adresse :
Pall Coorporation,
New York, USA
E-mail : ablodoucoure@hotmail.com

Key words / Mots clés :
Polymers - Ceramics - Atomic Force Microscopy - Scanning Electron Microscopy - X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy - Fourier Transformed Infrared spectroscopy - Energy Dispersive Spectrometry

Abstract / Résumé : The need for devices that can process information faster and with greater accuracy has pushed the boundaries of material design far below the submicronic scale. For instance, this can be seen in microelectronics with the permanent quest for storing more memory on silicon wafers, or in biotechnology where the target is to fabricate lab-on-a-chip elements and improve the research in cell, gene, protein analysis and drug discovery.

As a result, new analytical tools have emerged to better understand the properties and performances of such materials. This course will provide some examples of methods commonly used to study polymers and ceramics at a submicronic level. Each technique will be presented with a summary about the fundamentals and some applications. We will investigate the microscopic features and surface morphology of materials by learning about SEM and AFM techniques; and spectroscopic tools such as XPS, EDS and FTIR, will be used to determine the surface/bulk atomic composition of materials with their chemical arrangement.