Nanoscale Chemical Characterization of Polymers and Functional Surfaces: One Molecule at a Time

Polymers and functional surfaces may look uniform when studied with conventional methods, but at the nanoscale they consist of individual structures that differ in size, shape, chemical composition, and organization. In this thesis, atomic force microscopy and nanoscale infrared spectroscopy were combined to examine these differences directly. The results show that individual polymer features can vary strongly in molecular weight and aggregation, that chirality develops across molecular, single-chain, and larger assembled structures, and that interactions between molecules control how functional monolayers form on surfaces. These findings demonstrate that the behavior of polymers and functional surfaces cannot always be understood from an average measurement alone. By revealing chemical and structural differences at the level of individual nanoscale features, this work provides a more direct understanding of how local organization and molecular interactions give rise to material properties.