Tender X-ray scattering of conjugated polymers reveals strong resonant diffraction effects at the sulfur K-edge

Published

January 4, 2021

Author(s)

Eliot Gann, Christopher McNeill, Guillaume Freychet, Lars Thomsen, Xuchem Jiao, Feng Guitao, Weiwei Li

Abstract

Resonant diffraction (also known as anomalous diffraction) occurs when the X-ray energy used in an X- ray diffraction experiment matches an X-ray absorption edge in one of the constituent elements in the sample. The rapid changes in diffraction intensity that occur as the X-ray energy is varied across an absorption edge provide additional information that is lost in a conventional non-resonant experiment. Taking advantage of the fact that many conjugated polymers contain sulfur as heteroatoms, this work reveals pronounced resonant diffraction effects at the sulfur K-edge for common conjugated polymers as well as novel double-cable conjugated polymers. The observed changes in diffraction intensity with energy are found to match those predicted from theory are interpreted in terms of the calculated atomic scattering factors. It is also shown that peaks indexed to different planes or diffraction orders exhibit different energy dependencies. The use of resonant diffraction to study conjugated polymers is expected to open up a new way to study the molecular packing of these materials.

Citation

Journal of American Chemical Society

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.0c10721

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Keywords

Conjugated polymers, Resonant diffraction, Anomalous diffraction, Tender X-ray scattering, GIWAXS, NEXAFS spectroscopy, Sulfur

Citation

Gann, E. , McNeill, C. , Freychet, G. , Thomsen, L. , Jiao, X. , Guitao, F. and Li, W. (2021), Tender X-ray scattering of conjugated polymers reveals strong resonant diffraction effects at the sulfur K-edge, Journal of American Chemical Society, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.0c10721, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=930693 (Accessed May 3, 2024)