Micro-thermal analysis and evolved gas analysis

Micro-thermal analysis employs an active heated tip in a scanning probe mic roscope. This allows topographic and thermal imaging of surfaces to be carr ied out and permits localised thermal analysis of selected areas of materia l. In order to provide a means for spatially resolved chemical characteriza tion, a method of trapping the gases that are evolved when the thermal prob e is used to pyrolyze the surface has been developed. The trapped gases can then be thermally desorbed and passed into a GC-MS system for separation a nd identification. With this system it is possible to ablate a small (< 10 <mu>m x 10 mum) area of a sample (or a domain, feature or contaminant) and elucidate its composition. This paper presents initial results for a homoge neous polymer (poly(methyl methacrylate))- and a heterogeneous polymer blen d (polystyrene/poly(alpha -methyl styrene)). (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.