Advanced Techniques for the Characterization of Surface Structure in Polymer Thin Films and Coatings

This review demonstrates the importance of advanced characterization techniques, such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and near-edge X-ray adsorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy, in accurately determining the composition/morphology of polymeric thin films. The ability to relate structure with surface properties has the potential to benefit a wide variety of science and engineering fields with direct application to the polymer coating, lithography and solar cell industries. Further advances in such areas will build on these characterization techniques and other microscopy, probe and scattering methods to allow real-time monitoring of the evolution of surface structure during processing and/or annealing. The ultimate goal of these methods is the accurate design of tunable, multifunctional surfaces.