Two different approaches to investigate the local complex conductivity and the surface charge with Scanning Force Microscopy (SFM) techniques are presented. It is shown that the measurement of local electrical properties with SFM leads to interesting information about the composition of electrically heterogeneous surfaces
With an extended contact and non-contact mode scanning force microscope samples with different heterogeneous electrical properties can be characterized. The contact mode method allows the determination of local electric conductivities of heterogeneous systems at the sample surfaces. An interpretation of this behaviour can be obtained in combination with other SFM modes such as topography, friction and compliance used simultaneously. The non-contact mode SFM allows to get more information about the local surface charge of heterogeneous samples. In this paper two new SFM approaches will be discussed on examples of carbon-fibre reinforced, organic and ceramic materials
Electromechanical response of polypropylene ferroelectret transducers under application of high-voltage pulses was measured by laser Doppler vibrometry and compared with results of ultrasonic through-air transmission between two ferroelectret transducers. The electromechanical response was completely explained by piezoelectric and electrostrictive effects. The electrostrictive effect dominates at high voltages and provides significant enlargement of the transducer constant, up to factor of 2.5. The induced strain of 1.7% was achieved at – 2000 V. The nonlinear ultrasonic transmission was shown to be well described by the piezoelectric and electrostrictive response of transmitter, except in the range of high negative exciting voltages where some limitation of the transmitted signal was observed. This limitation seems not to be a fundamental one and does not abolish the advantages of high-voltage excitation of polypropylene ferroelectret transducers.
The application of microwave measurements to the characterisation of rubber compounds vulcanisation is considered. The behaviour of mechanical and microwave (20 GHz) dielectric parameters during vulcanisation was investigated for rubber compounds with different concentrations of active and non-active carbon black. An increase of concentration or activity of carbon black results in the increase of both dielectric permittivity ε?(T) and loss ε?(T) and in the increase of torsion modulus as well. The start of the vulcanisation reaction is indicated by an increase of dielectric permittivity and torsion modulus in all investigated unvulcanised compounds with carbon black. While for compounds with non-active carbon black the vulcanisation can be better indicated by the ε?(T) anomaly, for compounds with active carbon black it is more clearly seen by the change of ε?(T) behaviour.
Analysis of the dielectric and electromechanical properties of the cellular polypropylene ferroelectret films (EMFIT) evidences their high potential for the application in the air-coupled ultrasonic transducers. Simple prototype transducers, based on the EMFIT films, were developed and their high sensitivity was proved in the air-coupled ultrasonic experiment. Amplitude and delay time scanned images of the polyethylene step wedge with holes, obtained in both pulse-echo and transmission modes, demonstrate that non-contact ultrasonic imaging with EMFIT transducers is possible.