Investigation of neat polymers by TEM is often thwarted by their sensitivity to the incident electron beam, which also limits the usefulness of chemical and spectroscopic information available by electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) for these materials. However, parallel-detection EELS systems allow reduced radiation damage, due to their far greater efficiency, thereby promoting their use to obtain this information for polymers. This is evident in qualitative identification of beam sensitive components in polymer blends and detailed investigations of near-edge features of homopolymers.Spectra were obtained for a poly(bisphenol-A carbonate) (BPAC) blend containing poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) using a parallel-EELS and a serial-EELS (Gatan 666, 607) for comparison. A series of homopolymers was also examined using parallel-EELS on a JEOL 2000FX TEM employing a LaB6 filament at 100 kV. Pure homopolymers were obtained from Scientific Polymer Products. The PTFE sample was commercial grade. Polymers were microtomed on a Reichert-Jung Ultracut E and placed on holey carbon grids.
