Dynamic mechanical analysis in materials science: The Novice’s Tale

There are a few useful textbooks and online materials available on dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) but no short and succinct article that will be useful for a beginner. Here we are providing a brief introductory overview of DMA, followed by details of the different types of measurements possible with a typical DMA instrument. Some of the important measures needing to be taken in these analyses are also summarized, along with the possibilities of designing new experiments with the help of a DMA instrument. Oscillatory stress/strain-assisted studies of two different types of membranes—a polymer membrane and a membrane which consists of assembled ultra-thin oxidized graphene flakes—are discussed at the end. These studies show the vast possibilities of DMA in understanding the different aspects of solids, such as their phase transitions, microstructure, damping, complex interactions in the composite matrix, and also about the mechanical modulus of the solid membrane. Hence this article discusses the new avenues for DMA in different fields and takes the reader from the fundamentals to its advanced applicability.