Fluorinated polymers: evaluation and characterization of structure and composition

The proposed review represents the systematic analysis of modern methods and approaches for the characterization and structural evaluation of fluorinated polymers that have found a wide application as materials for chemical processing, chemically resistant components and coatings, pharmaceutical and electrical packaging, biomedical equipment, etc. The chemical composition of the polymers (fluorine content, its distribution inside the fluorinated materials, chemical bonds, presence of oxygen-containing groups) substantially influences on the operation properties (chemical resistance, adhesive, cohesive, optical, dielectrical, thermal, barrier, gas permeation) of the final polymeric products. Hence, it was of particularly importanсe to bond the emergence of specific features with the presence of fluorine in the chemical structure of polymer by means of related analytical techniques. Namely, we focused on spectral (IR, UV-VIS, NMR, XPS, EPR), chemical (elemental analysis), Secondary-ion mass spectroscopic (SIMS) and microscopic (AFM, SEM-EDX) methods emphasizing their general consideration and limitations as well as application for the in-depth characterization.