Understanding the mechanisms of electromechanical response on the nanoscale would greatly benefit the development of electroresponsive polymers for energy storage, actuation, and biomedical applications. In order to better design electroresponsive polymeric systems, the characterization of a material’s response to an electric field <i>in situ</i> with subnanometer resolution is needed. Such a characterization provides a deeper understanding of how nanoscale interactions contribute to the electromechanical response. This talk will highlight the use of in situ voltage modulated atomic force microscopy (VM-AFM), neutron reflectometry measurements collected under applied electric fields and complementary coarse grained molecular dynamics simulations to provide nanoscale resolution of polymer and counter-anion motion in thin films. As a model system, a polymerized ionic liquid based diblock copolymer (PIL-BCP) containing a cationic, imidazolium block and a deuterated styrene block was synthesized. The relative contributions of each block and the counter anion on film deformation were observed and analyzed. These results emphasize the potential of coupling in situ techniques that can achieve nanoscale resolution in investigating the electromechanical response of polymeric systems in thin film geometries. These developments have exciting applications in the development of energy storage systems as well as the fabrication of actuating devices, where counter ion size and its polarizability can be used to tune electromechanical properties.

Nanoscale resolution of electric-field induced motion in ionic copolymer films

256th National Meeting (2018)

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