Despite the enormous number of spectroscopic techniques that have been described and developed, only a limited number are commercially available and are actually used in the study and development of adhesive bonding materials. These techniques will be described in more detail in this section.
The techniques highlighted here are XPS, AES, SIMS, various forms of FTIR, Raman spectroscopies, and HREELS. This selection is based on their relative ease of application and interpretation, their commercial availability, and the unique capabilities that each technique possesses for the study of an aspect of adhesive bonding. These capabilities are also highly complementary. The applications discussed are chosen to illustrate the applications in three major areas described earlier: surface characterization, modification of metal or polymer surfaces, and analysis of interfaces.