@article{FilimonKopfBalloutetal.2010, author = {Filimon, Marlena and Kopf, Ilona and Ballout, Fuad and Schmidt, Dietrich A. and Bruendermann, Erik and R{\"u}he, J{\"u}rgen and Santer, Svetlana A. and Havenith, Martina}, title = {Smart polymer surfaces : mapping chemical landscapes on the nanometre scale}, issn = {1744-683X}, doi = {10.1039/C0sm00098a}, year = {2010}, abstract = {We show that Scattering Infrared Near-field Microscopy (SNIM) allows chemical mapping of polymer monolayers that can serve as designed nanostructured surfaces with specific surface chemistry properties on a nm scale. Using s- SNIM a minimum volume of 100 nm x 100 nm x 15 nm is sufficient for a recording of a "chemical'' IR signature which corresponds to an enhancement of at least four orders of magnitudes compared to conventional FT-IR microscopy. We could prove that even in cases where it is essentially difficult to distinguish between distinct polymer compositions based solely on topography, nanophase separated polymers can be clearly distinguished according to their characteristic near-field IR response.}, language = {en} } @article{FilimonKopfSchmidtetal.2011, author = {Filimon, Marlena and Kopf, Ilona and Schmidt, Dietrich A. and Bruendermann, Erik and R{\"u}he, J{\"u}rgen and Santer, Svetlana A. and Havenith, Martina}, title = {Local chemical composition of nanophase-separated polymer brushes}, series = {Physical chemistry, chemical physics : a journal of European Chemical Societies}, volume = {13}, journal = {Physical chemistry, chemical physics : a journal of European Chemical Societies}, number = {24}, publisher = {Royal Society of Chemistry}, address = {Cambridge}, issn = {1463-9076}, doi = {10.1039/c0cp02756a}, pages = {11620 -- 11626}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Using scattering scanning nearfield infrared microscopy (s-SNIM), we have imaged the nanoscale phase separation of mixed polystyrene-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-PMMA) brushes and investigated changes in the top layer as a function of solvent exposure. We deduce that the top-layer of the mixed brushes is composed primarily of PMMA after exposure to acetone, while after exposure to toluene this changes to PS. Access to simultaneously measured topographic and chemical information allows direct correlation of the chemical morphology of the sample with topographic information. Our results demonstrate the potential of s-SNIM for chemical mapping based on distinct infrared absorption properties of polymers with a high spatial resolution of 80 nm x 80 nm.}, language = {en} }