Development of Quantitative In Situ TEM Nanomechanical Testing for Polymers

Abstract

The recent development of in situ Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) nanomechanical testing techniques has mostly benefitted our understanding of fundamental deformation mechanisms in hard materials such as metals and ceramics [1]. Here, we report on recent progress extending these techniques to study polymeric materials using an in situ TEM nanoindenter with a Push-to-Pull (PTP) device to perform quantitative tensile tests on thin polymer sheets.

About the Art and Science of Visualizing Polymer Morphology using Transmission Electron Microscopy

“…Deformation mechanisms may also be followed by in‐situ TEM nanomechanical testing. Hitherto restricted to hard materials, the technique has very recently been extended to polymeric samples . Owing to significant instrumentation progresses over the last two decades, substantial advances have also been made in new stain‐free imaging methods based either on phase contrast or on spectroscopic contrast .…”