ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPIC IMAGING-TECHNIQUES FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF MULTIPHASE POLYMER SYSTEMS - POLY(STYRENE-B-METHYLPHENYLSILOXANE) THIN-FILMS

Electron spectroscopic imagining (ESI) is a recently developed method which broadens the scope of electron microscopic imaging considerably. Phase separated diblockcopolymers of poly(styrene) (PS) and poly(meth ylphenylsiloxane) (PMPS) and their mixtures with the respective homopo lymers exhibit domains which differ in elemental composition. One of t he phases contains only carbon and hydrogen, the other one contains si licon and oxygen atoms in addition. This feature makes the systems a c andidate to demonstrate the application of ESI to problems in polymer material science. Effects of solvent and surface phenomena were studie d in unstained thin solution cast films prior to and after annealing. Elemental maps are compared with micrographs which were exposed at an energy loss for which so called structure sensitive contrast predomina tes. Both methods utilize the inelastically scattered electrons for im aging.