Three‐dimensional structural analysis of a block copolymer by scanning electron microscopy combined with a focused ion beam

Abstract

A three‐dimensional (3D) lamellar structure of a poly(styrene‐block‐isoprene) block copolymer was observed at submicrometer and micrometer levels by scanning electron microscopy combined with a focused ion beam (FIB–SEM). The 3D lamellar structure with an exceptionally large periodicity, about 0.1 μm, was successfully reconstructed, and the size of the reconstructed image by FIB–SEM was 6.0 × 6.0 × 4.0 μm3, which was greater than the transmission electron microtomography data, 3.8 × 3.9 × 0.24 μm3, by a factor of about 40. This result indicates that 3D reconstruction using FIB–SEM is quite useful for direct 3D observations, especially analyses of polymeric materials at the submicrometer and micrometer levels. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 677–683, 2007

Insight into <i>Emiliania huxleyi</i> coccospheres by focused ion beam sectioning

“…A helpful tool to gain information on the interior architecture of samples is FIB-SEM (Inkson et al, 2001;Williams et al, 2005;Uchic et al, 2006;Holzapfel et al, 2007;Kato et al, 2007;Mc Grozther and Munroe, 2007). This combination enables bulk samples to be locally sectioned by means of ion milling and subsequently imaged at high resolution (De Winter et al, 2009).…”

Preparation of polymer electrolyte membrane with nanomatrix channel through sulfonation of natural rubber grafted with polystyrene

“…5 shows TEM images for DPNR-graft-PS prepared with 1.5 mol/kgrubber of styrene and 3.3 × 10 −2 mol/kg-rubber of initiator. The bright domains represent PS and the gloomy domains represent natural rubber, since DPNR-graft-PS was stained with OsO 4 [11]. Natural rubber particles of about 1 μm in average diameter were well dispersed in the PS nanomatrix of about 30 nm in thickness, which consisted of PS nano-particles of about 5 nm in diameter to form a discontinuous nanomatrix, as reported in our previous work [12].…”

Three-Dimensional Structural Study of Tin Plated Fretting Contacts

“…Recently, SEM combined with FIB (Focused Ion Beam) has been developed and there are some reports using this technique [9,10]. However, there are few reports about the observations of tin plated fretting contacts.…”