A Simple, Inexpensive Method Of Sample Preparation For Infrared Microscopy

Extract

The use of infrared microspectroscopy for examining polymer systems has been well known for some time. Fibers, inclusions in polymers and multilayered films have been examined by this technique. One limitation of the technique is the difficulty of sample preparation. A variety of methods have been proposed to prepare the sample including excising an inclusion, microtoming and the use of diamond cells to squeeze the sample into an appropriate thickness. Spectra-Tech purveys a diamond Micro Plane to prepare thin sections of polymers as well as an ATR objective to avoid the necessity of preparing thin sections. Ing Shaw et al. have proposed the use of a fiber microtome to prepare samples and claims that this technique is faster and easier than conventional microtoming.