I dispersed graphene into polyurethane and applied onto steel. The thickness of my coating is less than 25 um. So far, I have technical found that graphene is randomly dispersed at low concentration. I expect coating porosity to increase upon increasing concentration of graphene.
Your question was answered on Researchgate. Please see: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Measuring_density_of_thin_films-can_anyone_help/1
Dear Nathan,
as you can see from the anwers in the link provided by Florian, the surface roughness is a severe issue in the evaluation of reflectivity spectra (better 'reflectogram'). Furthermore in your case the 'surface roughness' is not only restricted to the surface of your sample but most probably extents throughout the complete film thickness via inhomogenous material distribution, because you fear that your sample is porous.
Evaluation of x-ray reflectograms however rely on the model of stratified homogenous media. Nevertheless you may have access to the porosity via the density of the film.
Derivation of the density is briefly decribed in a recent anwers of me in a density related question.
But I fear that you fail with XRR because you need a destinct fall off of the reflectivity around the critical angle of total reflection. The profile of this fall off is seriously affected by the porosity.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_determine_density_of_a_film_using_XRR_techniques
Thank you very much for your answers! Determining the coating porosity using XRR can be correlated with the mechanical properties of the coating.
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