Microstructural Study of Organic Mixed Ionic-Electronic Conductor Thin Films Using 4D-STEM and HRTEM

摘要: Organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors (OMIECs) are a growing class of soft, dynamic, and functional materials with coupled mixed ionic and electronic conductivity. These materials are promising active elements in thin film electronic devices used for diverse applications such as energy storage and bioelectronics [1]. While new promising families of materials have emerged in this space, little is known about their microstructure. A complete understanding of the microstructure at multiple length scales is needed for building structure–property relationships for this family of materials.In this study, we investigated the microstructure of synthetically designed polymeric OMIECs thin films using two complementary electron microscopy techniques: HRTEM and 4D-STEM. Both the dried and hydrated states were studied. Using the 4D-STEM technique we acquired microstructural data of our model polymer, a thin film of p …