Reflectivity, GI-SAS and GI-Diffraction: X-Ray

One of the features of X-rays is the penetration power into matter, revealing the invisible interior of complex objects. Moreover, X-rays are a critical tool to investigate material structures and properties because of the electromagnetic radiation that is able to interact with matter having an electromagnetic nature. In particular, X-ray reflectivity (XR) and grazing incidence X-ray scattering (GIXS) are powerful, nondestructive techniques for examining the structure and properties of materials including various kinds of polymers and their nanostructures and nanosize specimens. These techniques have become more powerful for understanding nanostructures and objects in nanosize by using synchrotron radiation sources. Their fundamental theories and applications in polymer science are given and discussed. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.