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Ultra-high resolution imaging of thin films and single strands of polythiophene using atomic force microscopy
Real-space images of polymers with sub-molecular resolution could provide valuable insights into the relationship between morphology and functionality of polymer optoelectronic devices, but their acquisition is problematic due to perceived limitations in atomic force microscopy (AFM). We show that i...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6449331/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30948725 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09571-6 |
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author | Korolkov, Vladimir V. Summerfield, Alex Murphy, Alanna Amabilino, David B. Watanabe, Kenji Taniguchi, Takashi Beton, Peter H. |
author_facet | Korolkov, Vladimir V. Summerfield, Alex Murphy, Alanna Amabilino, David B. Watanabe, Kenji Taniguchi, Takashi Beton, Peter H. |
author_sort | Korolkov, Vladimir V. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Real-space images of polymers with sub-molecular resolution could provide valuable insights into the relationship between morphology and functionality of polymer optoelectronic devices, but their acquisition is problematic due to perceived limitations in atomic force microscopy (AFM). We show that individual thiophene units and the lattice of semicrystalline spin-coated films of polythiophenes (PTs) may be resolved using AFM under ambient conditions through the low-amplitude (≤ 1 nm) excitation of higher eigenmodes of a cantilever. PT strands are adsorbed on hexagonal boron nitride near-parallel to the surface in islands with lateral dimensions ~10 nm. On the surface of a spin-coated PT thin film, in which the thiophene groups are perpendicular to the interface, we resolve terminal CH(3)-groups in a square arrangement with a lattice constant 0.55 nm from which we can identify abrupt boundaries and also regions with more slowly varying disorder, which allow comparison with proposed models of PT domains. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6449331 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-64493312019-04-08 Ultra-high resolution imaging of thin films and single strands of polythiophene using atomic force microscopy Korolkov, Vladimir V. Summerfield, Alex Murphy, Alanna Amabilino, David B. Watanabe, Kenji Taniguchi, Takashi Beton, Peter H. Nat Commun Article Real-space images of polymers with sub-molecular resolution could provide valuable insights into the relationship between morphology and functionality of polymer optoelectronic devices, but their acquisition is problematic due to perceived limitations in atomic force microscopy (AFM). We show that individual thiophene units and the lattice of semicrystalline spin-coated films of polythiophenes (PTs) may be resolved using AFM under ambient conditions through the low-amplitude (≤ 1 nm) excitation of higher eigenmodes of a cantilever. PT strands are adsorbed on hexagonal boron nitride near-parallel to the surface in islands with lateral dimensions ~10 nm. On the surface of a spin-coated PT thin film, in which the thiophene groups are perpendicular to the interface, we resolve terminal CH(3)-groups in a square arrangement with a lattice constant 0.55 nm from which we can identify abrupt boundaries and also regions with more slowly varying disorder, which allow comparison with proposed models of PT domains. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-04-04 /pmc/articles/PMC6449331/ /pubmed/30948725 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09571-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Korolkov, Vladimir V. Summerfield, Alex Murphy, Alanna Amabilino, David B. Watanabe, Kenji Taniguchi, Takashi Beton, Peter H. Ultra-high resolution imaging of thin films and single strands of polythiophene using atomic force microscopy |
title | Ultra-high resolution imaging of thin films and single strands of polythiophene using atomic force microscopy |
title_full | Ultra-high resolution imaging of thin films and single strands of polythiophene using atomic force microscopy |
title_fullStr | Ultra-high resolution imaging of thin films and single strands of polythiophene using atomic force microscopy |
title_full_unstemmed | Ultra-high resolution imaging of thin films and single strands of polythiophene using atomic force microscopy |
title_short | Ultra-high resolution imaging of thin films and single strands of polythiophene using atomic force microscopy |
title_sort | ultra-high resolution imaging of thin films and single strands of polythiophene using atomic force microscopy |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6449331/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30948725 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09571-6 |
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