Atomic force microscopy enabled roughness analysis of nanostructured poly (diaminonaphthalene) doped poly (vinyl alcohol) conducting polymer thin films.

The Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) helps in evaluating parameters like amplitude or height parameters, functional or statistical parameters and spatial parameters which describe the surface topography or the roughness. In this paper, we have evaluated the roughness parameters for the native poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA), monomer diaminonaphthalene (DAN) doped PVA, and poly (diaminonaphthalene) (PDAN) doped PVA films prepared in different solvents. In addition, distribution of heights, skewness and Kurtosis moments which describe surface asymmetry and flatness properties of a film were also determined. At the same time line profiles, 3D and 2D images of the surface structures at different scanning areas i.e. 5×5μm and 10×10μm were also investigated. From the roughness analysis and the surface skewness and coefficient of Kurtosis parameters, it was concluded that for PVA film the surface contains more peaks than valleys and the PDAN doped PVA film has more valleys than peaks. It was also found that the PDAN doped PVA film with acetonitrile solvent was used for substrate in electronics applications because the film gives less fractal morphology. Thus, the AFM analysis with different parameters suggested that the PDAN doped PVA films are smooth at the sub-nanometer scale.