Transmission Electron Microscopy is an essential technique for imaging the microstructures at the nanometer scale. However, quantitative analysis of such images is not easy due to the nature of TEM contrast based on diffraction phenomena. A quantitative description of the microstructure of melt-spun AIY ribbons has been carried out in the present work. TEM observations have revealed randomly distributed and oriented spherical nanometer crystals. ln order to describe quantitatively their size and shape, images under different diffraction conditions were recorded. These images have been analyzed using software for image analysis. The data have been compared to the results obtained by other techniques, such as X-ray diffractometry and differential scanning calorimetry.

Hybrid filter material was obtained via modification of polypropylene (PP) nonwoven with nanosize zinc oxide particles of a high aspect ratio. Modification was conducted as a three-step process, a variant of hydrothermal method used for synthesis of nano-ZnO, adopted for coating three dimensional polymeric nonwoven filters. The process consisted of plasma treatment of nonwoven to increase its wettability, deposition of ZnO nanoparticles and low temperature hydrothermal growth of ZnO rods. The modified nonwovens were investigated by a high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM). It has been found that the obtained hybrid filters offer a higher filtration efficiency, in particular for so called most penetrating particle sizes.