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Optical Microscopy And Atomic Force Microscopy Imaging Of 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene Droplets And Clusters On Mica, D. O. Henderson, M. A. George, A. Burger, R. Mu, Zhiyu Hu, G. C. Huston

Scanning Microscopy

Optical and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to image 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) on a cleaved mica (001) surface. The vapor deposition of TNT resulted in ellipsoidal drop formation on the mica surface. The growth rate of the drop diameter was found to be linear with vapor dosing time while the drop density followed a 1/r² dependence, where r is the length of the major axis of the ellipsoid, for increasing dosing times. TNT platelets surrounded by a region depleted of drops were observed after 8 hours of dosing. The depleted region is attributed to a 10% shrinkage for liquid-solid …