FLIM–FRAPP: near-simultaneous characterization of multi-scale polymer dynamics <i>via</i> fluorescence microscopy

Characterizing multi-scale dynamics of polymers is crucial to inform property-process relationships, but there is an outstanding gap between accessibility and comprehensive data collection. To this end, we present a new multi-scale characterization method, FLIM-FRAPP, a near-simultaneous, hybrid approach between fluorescence lifetime measurement (FLIM) and fluorescence recovery after patterned photobleaching (FRAPP) to probe the glass transition temperature and self-diffusion coefficient of a model entangled copolymer, poly(methyl acrylate-<i>stat</i>-methyl methacrylate) (P(MA-<i>stat</i>-MMA)). Our investigation reveals opportunities and challenges concerning the nature of fluorescence characterization techniques for the exploration of polymer dynamics.