Title: "Beyond nice pictures: high-resolution molecular imaging as a tool to characterize the microstructure of conjugated polymers."
In this talk, Dr. Costantini will demonstrate that high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is capable of delivering crucial information that cannot be achieved by other current analytical methods about “real world” electronic and energy materials. Specifically, he will show that by combining vacuum electrospray deposition (ESD) and high-resolution STM, it is possible to image conjugated polymers used in organic (bio)electronics and photovoltaic devices with unprecedented details.
Based on this, it becomes possible to sequence the polymers by visual inspection and to determine their molecular mass distribution by simply counting the repeat units. He will further show that we can precisely establish the nature and frequency of synthetic defects in the polymer backbone and determine the polymer assembly motifs with sub-molecular spatial resolution. By benchmarking the results of ESD-STM against NMR, XRD, and mass spectrometry, Dr. Costantini will demonstrate that his new technique successfully reproduces and extends the analytical power of traditional characterization methods.
