Introduction

Many physical techniques are used in the study of solid polymers and some, such as NMR spectroscopy, can give information about a wide variety of features of the structure or properties. On the other hand, some of these features, for instance the degree of crystallinity, can be studied by a wide variety of techniques that give either similar or complementary information. The techniques described in this chapter are those that have a wide applicability within polymer physics or where the description of the technique is most easily introduced by reference to non-polymeric materials. The reader who is already familiar with a particular technique, e.g. X-ray diffraction, may wish to omit the corresponding section of this chapter. It is suggested that other readers should read through the chapter fairly quickly to gain an overall view of the techniques and then look back when applications are referred to in later chapters if they wish to gain a deeper understanding. Techniques that are more specific to polymers are described in the appropriate chapters and only a few, which are generally available only in specialised laboratories, are mentioned without further discussion.