Orientation mapping of semicrystalline polymers using scanning electron nanobeam diffraction.
We demonstrate a scanning electron nanobeam diffraction technique that can be used for mapping the size and distribution of nanoscale crystalline regions in a polymer blend. In addition, it can map the relative orientation of crystallites and the degree of crystallinity of the material. The model polymer blend is a 50:50w/w mixture of semicrystalline poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) and amorphous polystyrene (PS). The technique uses a scanning electron beam to raster across the sample and acquires a diffraction image at each probe position. Through image alignment and filtering, the diffraction image dataset enables mapping of the crystalline regions within the scanned area and construction of an orientation map.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; National Center for Electron Microscopy, Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Ouliana
O
Panova
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
X Chelsea
XC
Chen
National Center for Electron Microscopy, Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Karen C
KC
Bustillo
National Center for Electron Microscopy, Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Colin
C
Ophus
Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA; Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Mahesh P
MP
Bhatt
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA; Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Nitash
N
Balsara
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; National Center for Electron Microscopy, Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA. Electronic address: aminor@lbl.gov.
Andrew M
AM
Minor
Crystal orientation; Diffraction; Locally resolved structure; P3HT; Polymers; STEM; Spatially resolved; TEM