document: SPM, and AFM in particular, has been widely applied to questions in polymer crystallization. The technique has several strengths that make it ideally suited for such studies. It is a high resolution technology, routinely resolving sub 10nm features [13,14], and hence allowing the fundamental length scale of the polymer lamellar crystal, its thickness, to be observed. AFM requires no staining or metal coating of the sample, so sample preparation is relatively straightforward. Also, it is non-destructive under many circumstances. This allows images to be obtained while a process such as crystal growth or melting is occurring, giving time-resolved data at lamellar or sub-lamellar resolution [15–18]. It is this final feature that provides many of the most exciting possibilities of AFM for studying polymer crystallization, as it is now possible to watch crystal growth, crystal melting, and re-organisations within crystals at the lamellar scale, seeing how structure evolves and local conditions influence kinetics. AFM has a wide range of different measuring modes, and, with the ever increasing number of functional semicrystalline polymers available (e.g. [19]), the breadth of experiments that can be carried out with a single machine is also one of the techniques attractions.
doc_bio_tags: B O B O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I O B I I I O O O O O O O O O O B O B O O O O O B O O B O B I O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O B O O O O O O O O B O B B O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O
extractive_keyphrases: afm crystal crystals high resolution technology melting metal coating polymer resolving sub 10nm features sample preparation semicrystalline polymers spm staining
abstractive_keyphrases: crystal growth crystal melting polymer crystallization polymer lamellar crystal questions in polymer crystallization re-organisations within crystals at the lamellar scale studying polymer crystallization time-resolved data