Experiment 22 - Optical microscopy

Abstract

Microscopy refers to the study of fine structure and morphology of polymers with the use of a microscope. The structures present in a polymer reflect the processing variables and greatly influence the physical and mechanical properties. Therefore, properties of polymeric materials are generally influenced by their chemical composition, process history, and the resulting morphology. It is important that the structural observations must correlate with the properties of the material to develop an understanding of the applications of the material. There are several types of optical microscope (OM) techniques commonly used to examine polymer specimens. Optical microscopes generally have one or more light sources and a series of lenses that focus the light beam on the specimen and thus produce magnified images. Images are typically recorded photographically or on videotape. To be specific, in the OM, an image is produced by the interaction of light with the object of specimen. The image can reveal fine detail in or on the specimen at a range of magnification from 2 to 2000X.