Microthermal analysis of polymeric materials

The technique of scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) with microthermal analysis (μTA) was used for examining the surface thermal properties of a wide selection of materials ranging from poorly thermal conducting polymers to highly conductive metals. We discuss μTA results in comparison with the data collected from conventional methods of thermal analyses, namely, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermomechanical analysis (TMA). The μTA measurements of melting and glass transition temperatures were conducted using a wide range of heating rates. We demonstrated that the trends observed were consistent with concurrent measurements by DSC. From the comparison of the μTA and TMA results, we concluded that the thermomechanical contribution, which is due to a variable physical contact area for a “sinking” tip, was dominant in the microthermal response of polymers.