I am a newbie in research and would like to ask about how do we find out the chemical "Composition" and "Structure" of a polymer material by using any accurate characterization technique?
Well you can charaterize you sample by using Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) to find the elemental analysis . It also comes along with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX). It will provide you with elemental identification and quantitative compositional information of your specimen.
the chain structures of polymers focus on functional groups in single molecular chains. Therefore, analytical methods as pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (PGC-MS), Fourier tansform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-VIS), Raman Spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) are often used.
The aggregation structures of polymers depend on the relative arrangement of the molecular chains, reflected by the interactions between the functional groups. In yhis case, analytical methods such as FT-IR. differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and x-ray diffraction (XRD) are often carried out.
For more details, please see at the source, the following interesting book:
-Analytical Methods for Polymer Characterization by Rui Yang
CRC Press, 2018 - ISBN 135121313X, 9781351213134
Available as a limited vision version at: https://books.google.it/books?id=BwVGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP20&lpg=PP20&dq=instruments+for+chemical+%22Composition%22+and+%22Structure%22+of+a+polymer+material&source=bl&ots=B68MDP7MyA&sig=ACfU3U0tgoq71dCHuGFzXs_daUTczZ3oZQ&hl=it&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwissoa3vs7mAhUvsaQKHdD4DZcQ6AEwCnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=instruments%20for%20chemical%20%22Composition%22%20and%20%22Structure%22%20of%20a%20polymer%20material&f=false
In addition to the above good tips I would recommend for the beginning to make sure if you have a polymer mixture or composite or cross-linked material. So, first try to use different solvents to dissolve your material. In the simplest way it will be dissolved completely and you can try to separate the solution or dispersion on a chromatography column and then to study separated fractions. But you can meet a partial solubility. In this case you can separate this mixture on a filter. Then you can again study a separated fractions. If nothing will be dissolved this means that the polymer or mixture of polymers are cross-linked and it will be very difficult to identify the components precisely without an additional information.