Current Opportunities and Challenges in Biopolymer Thin Film Analysis—Determination of Film Thickness

Polymer thin films with thickness below 100 nm are a fascinating class of 2D materials with commercial and research applications in many branches ranging from coatings to photoresists and insulating materials, to mention just a few uses. Biopolymers have extended the scope of polymer thin films with unique materials such as cellulose, cellulose nanocrystals, cellulose nanofibrils with tunable water uptake, crystallinity and optical properties. The key information needed in thin biopolymer film use and research is film thickness. It is often challenging to determine precisely and hence several techniques and their combinations are used. Additional challenges with hydrophilic biopolymers such as cellulose are the presence of humidity and the soft and often heterogenous structure of the films. This minireview summarizes currently used methods and techniques for biopolymer thin film thickness analysis and outlines challenges for accurate and reproducible characterization. Cellulose is chosen as the representative biopolymer.

Electrografting of 4-Nitrobenzenediazonium Salts on Al-7075 Alloy Surfaces—The Role of Intermetallic Particles

In this work, the electrografting of Al-7075 aluminium alloy substrates with 4-nitrobenzenediazonium salt (4-NBD) films was studied on a complex aluminium alloy surface. Prior to the electrografting reaction, the substrates were submitted to different surface treatments to modify the native aluminium oxide layer and unveil intermetallic particles (IMPs). The formation of the 4-NBD films could be correlated with the passive film state and the distribution of IMPs. The corresponding electrografting reaction was performed by cyclic voltammetry which allowed the simultaneous analysis of the redox reaction by a number of complementary surface-analytical techniques. Spatially resolved thin film analysis was performed by means of SEM-EDX, AFM, PM-IRRAS, Raman spectroscopy, XPS, and SKPFM. The collected data show that the 4-NBD film is preferentially formed either on the Al oxide layer or the IMP surface depending on the applied potential range. Potentials between −0.1 and −1.0 VAg/AgCl mostly generated nitrophenylene films on the oxide covered aluminium, while grafting between −0.1 and −0.4 VAg/AgCl favours the growth of these films on IMPs.

Windows-based computational algorithms for 1D MPC and thin-film analysis

The development of magnetic photonic crystals (MPC) has been a rapidly evolving research area since the late 1990s. Magneto-optic (MO) materials and the techniques for their characterization have also continually undergone functional and property-related improvements. MPC Optimization is a feature-rich Windows software application designed to enable researchers to analyse the optical and magneto-optical spectral properties of multilayers containing gyrotropic constituents. A set of computational approaches, and a custom software package have been described, designed to enable the design and optimization of 1D magnetic photonic crystals in terms of the achievable combinations of Faraday rotation, transmission, and reflection spectra. 

Windows-based computational algorithms for 1D MPC and thin-film analysis

The development of magnetic photonic crystals (MPC) has been a rapidly evolving research area since the late 1990s. Magneto-optic (MO) materials and the techniques for their characterization have also continually undergone functional and property-related improvements. MPC Optimization is a feature-rich Windows software application designed to enable researchers to analyse the optical and magneto-optical spectral properties of multilayers containing gyrotropic constituents. A set of computational approaches, and a custom software package have been described, designed to enable the design and optimization of 1D magnetic photonic crystals in terms of the achievable combinations of Faraday rotation, transmission, and reflection spectra.