Abstract
Abstract Materials of significance in the rubber industry generally consist of a complex blend of elastomers, fillers, curing agents and other additives. Elucidating the complex microstructure-to-property relationship of these materials is essential for optimal product development. This requires characterization techniques that are capable to differentiate, map, and quantify these similar materials with sufficiently high spatial resolution. A technique that can provide such chemical microspeciation is Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscopy (STXM). STXM is a beamline based microscopy that utilizes the chemical specificity of Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) combined with zone plate optics to achieve high spatial resolution (< 50 nm) and low beam damage to allow the successful characterization of multi-component materials that would be difficult or impossible with other techniques. A brief introduction to the technique will be presented along with example applications showing curative and filler distribution mapping in multi-component elastomeric systems.
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