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Appendix: Interphase Dimension Measurement Via AFM
tWi1
W i NBC
W i Interphase
tWi2
NBC
Interphases
A
B
ith plane
10nm
(a)
W3
W2
W1
10 nm
W2
W1
W3
10 nm
W3
W1
W2
PVA matrices
Interphase
NBC
NBC
Interphase
PVA matrices
PVA
Interphase
PVA
NBC
NBC Interphase
W2
W3
W1
(b)
(c)
Height profile
Adhesion profile
Fig. A1 a Schematic diagrams of cross-sectional scanning of PVA/NBC interphase in PVA/NBC
bionanocomposites along transverse plane with b height profile and c adhesion profile [1]
where the interphase length L jInterphase along the jth longitudinal plane (j = 1, 2, 3,
…) is equal to the summation of individual NBC length L jNBC and its corresponding
longitudinal interphase thicknesses t Lj1 and t Lj2 , Fig. A2a. Furthermore, as shown
in Fig. A2b, the interphase height H kInterphase along the kth height plane (k = 1, 2,