Investigating buried polymer interfaces using sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy

Mini Review Understanding surfaces and buried interfaces of polymer materials at the molecular level using sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy

This paper reviews recent progress in the studies on polymer surfaces/interfaces using sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy. SFG theory, technique, and some experimental details have been presented. The review is focused on the SFG studies on buried interfaces involving polymer materials, such as polymer–water interfaces and polymer–polymer interfaces. Molecular interactions ...

Investigation of Interfaces by Sum-Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy

Illustrating consistency of different experimental approaches to probe the buried polymer/metal interface using sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy.

In this paper, we demonstrate our ability to directly probe the molecular structures of the buried polymer/metal interface using sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy. Spectroscopic data from different experimental approaches were compared and analyzed to deduce the molecular ordering information at a buried polymer/metal interface, i.e. the poly(n-butyl methylacrylate) (PBMA)...

Vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy using inverted visible pulses.

We present a broadband vibrational sum frequency generation (BB-VSFG) scheme using a novel ps visible pulse shape. We generate the fs IR pulse via standard procedures and simultaneously generate an 'inverted' time-asymmetric narrowband ps visible pulse via second harmonic generation in the pump depletion regime using a very long nonlinear crystal which has high group velocity mismatch (LiNbO3)....

Molecular Level Studies of Polymer Behaviors at the Water Interface Using Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy

Industrial plastics, biomedical polymers and numerous other polymeric systems are contacted with water for everyday functions and after disposal. Probing the interfacial molecular interactions between widely used polymers and water yields valuable information that can be extrapolated to macroscopic polymer/water interfacial behaviors so scientists can better understand polymer bio-compatibility...