The Polymers Division has several state of the art laboratories and
facilities which are available for your research needs. Detailed information
about each facility describing its capabilities, typical applications,
and availability is provided in the links below. Please also note
the NIST
disclaimer.
Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) Facility
SAXS is a powerful non-destructive technique to probe the structure of materials over
length scales of (1 to 100) nm. The SAXS facility in the Division is unique with several
configurations available through two target sources, a Bonse-Hart camera, and a pinhole
geometry.
X-ray reflectivity is a non-destructive technique for characterizing
surfaces of solids and liquids in terms of their roughness and electron
density depth profile. A depth up to micrometers can be resolved with
a resolution less than one nanometer. This capability makes it an
ideal tool for characterizing thin films.
The US's leading neutron scattering facility is maintained by the
NIST Center for
Neutron Research. Neutron scattering is used to probe molecular
and microstructural features of polymers and other materials. Within
the Facility there is an 8 m beam line that is particularly useful
for studies of polymers.
The Mass Spectrometry Facility is used in the measurement of molecular
mass and molecular mass distribution of synthetic polymers, as well
as in studies of the molecular architecture of prepolymers and copolymers.
NIST has three machines used to measure and assess the interfacial
shear properties between fibers and polymeric matrices. The first
is an automated single fiber fragmentation testing (SFFT) machine.
The second is a manual sfft machine. The third is a microdrop shear
apparatus.
Novel combinatorial methods for polymer "library" design and characterization
have been developed in the Polymers Division. These include gradient
flow coating with elevated temperature control, automated interferometric
mapping of film thickness and refractive index, composition gradient
library preparation, UV and wet etch for gradient surface hydrophobicity
modification of inorganic and polymer surfaces, infrared spectroscopic
composition mapping, temperature gradient processing stage, automated
optical reflection and transmission microscopy with polarization and
process control programming, automated multi-solvent contact angle
instrument, high throughput opto-adhesion methodology, and state of
the art on-line data analysis tools for image and pattern processing.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a powerful tool for non-destructive,
bulk volumetric imaging of synthetic materials. With this technique,
information about features with a size of 10 mm and above is obtained.
A requirement for this type of tomography is that the material be transparent
to near infrared light, making many polymer systems excellent candidates.
An instrumented slit die located at the exit of a twin screw extruder
allows in-situ optical measurements of blend morphology and critical
processing parameters. The combination of in-line optical microscopy
and light scattering probes a size range from 0.1 microns to 100 microns.
The facility has been used for the study of polymer blends, reactive
blends, in-situ fiber formation and slippage.
The Mercury Dilatometer Facility is used for the kinetic measurement
of volumetric changes in polymers. It is ideal for dynamically determining
the rate and time dependence of shrinkage or expansion in polymetric
materials subjected to chemical or photo polymerization.