| Abstract: | Thin coatings technology demands that characterization tools are readily available to distinguish between the composition and physical state of the coated layers versus the substrate. In principle, infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) possesses all the appropriate features to become a mainstream technique for these types of characterizations. These features include the ability to characterize coatings of a variety of thickness (monolayers to tens of microns) and the fact that the technique requires virtually no sample preparation. One category of such samples involves systems having few micron thin layered structures coated on relatively thick polyester substrates. The phase delay of the photoacoustic signal can be used in conjunction with the knowledge of the thermal properties of the coated fluids in the calculation of the relative as well as the absolute depths of these multi-layered coatings. The phase delay is calculated at wavelengths that are characteristic of the various components of the different layers in the system. The technique is applied to the characterization of a coated system having a submicron layer as the top layer. Step-scan FT-IR photoacoustic data are presented that prove the ability of the technique to successfully isolate the infrared signature of the top layer from the infrared spectrum of the bulk material, proving the sub-micron resolution capability of the method. In addition, results will be shown that underline the fact that the most serious problem in PAS is saturation at high absorptivities. |
