Morphological Investigation of SBS Modified Bitumen by Innovative Microscopies: AFM and CLSM

Abstract

Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) is one of the most commonly used copolymer in the PMB production. SBS modification results in different material characteristics on the neat bitumen depending on the SBS type and of course the amount of the SBS used in the modification. Within the scope of this study, morphological characterisation of SBS modified samples involving different amount of SBS copolymer (4%, 5% and 6%) were examined by using innovative microscopies as AFM and CLSM. The topographic and phase properties of the PMB samples were obtained by using AFM and the dispersion and interaction of SBS copolymer with the bitumen were interpreted based on the images obtained by CLSM. As a result it was concluded that, the amount of the copolymer used in the modification process directly effects the morphological properties of the final product (PMB).