Donostia International Physics Center, P. M. Lardizabal 4, 20018 Donostia, Spain.
Soft Matter. 2017 Aug 23;13(33):5597-5603. doi: 10.1039/c7sm00651a.
We present a detailed study on the ionic transport properties of polyethylene oxide (PEO) thin films prepared under different conditions. Using a state-of-the-art Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) methodology, we simultaneously acquired the nanostructured topography of these semicrystalline polymer films as well as the corresponding dielectric function; in the latter case by probing the frequency-dependent tip-sample electrical interactions. By means of this AFM protocol, we studied the ionic conductivity in the PEO amorphous phase and its dependence on film preparation conditions. In general, for any preparation method, we found a distribution of conductivities ranging from 10 to 10 S cm. Specifically, PEO thin films crystallized from the melt presented relatively high conductivity values, which decreased in the PEO films prepared from solutions at room temperature depending on solvent polarity. We discuss our results by considering the molecular arrangement of the polymer segments in the complex amorphous phase, which is strongly influenced by the PEO crystallization route.
我们对不同条件下制备的聚乙烯氧化物（PEO）薄膜的离子传输特性进行了详细研究。采用最先进的原子力显微镜（AFM）方法，我们同时获取了这些半结晶聚合物薄膜的纳米结构形貌以及相应的介电函数；在后一种情况下，通过探测频率相关的针尖-样品电相互作用来实现。通过这种 AFM 方案，我们研究了 PEO 非晶相中的离子电导率及其对薄膜制备条件的依赖性。一般来说，对于任何制备方法，我们发现电导率的分布范围从 10 到 10 S cm。具体而言，从熔体结晶的 PEO 薄膜表现出相对较高的电导率值，而从室温溶液中制备的 PEO 薄膜的电导率值则取决于溶剂的极性而降低。我们通过考虑聚合物分子在复杂非晶相中的排列来讨论我们的结果，这一排列受到 PEO 结晶途径的强烈影响。
