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The Effect of Direct Electron Beam Patterning on the Water Uptake and Ionic Conductivity of Nafion Thin Films
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Andrew Nelson ,
Gregory Burwell ,
Roman W. Lyttleton,
Hamish Cavaye ,
Rebecca J.L. Welbourn ,
Jakob Seidl,
Maxime Lagier,
Marta Sanchez Miranda,
James McGettrick ,
Trystan Watson ,
Paul Meredith ,
Adam P. Micolich
Advanced Electronic Materials, Volume: 9, Issue: 8
Swansea University Authors:
Bernard Mostert , Gregory Burwell , James McGettrick , Trystan Watson , Paul Meredith
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DOI (Published version): 10.1002/aelm.202300199
Abstract
The effect of electron-beam patterning on the water uptake and ionic conductivity of Nafion films using a combination of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, quartz crystal microbalance studies, neutron reflectometry, and impedance spectroscopy is reported. The aim is to further characterize the nanosc...
| Published in: | Advanced Electronic Materials |
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| ISSN: | 2199-160X 2199-160X |
| Published: |
Wiley
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| Online Access: |
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa63731 |
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| Abstract: |
The effect of electron-beam patterning on the water uptake and ionic conductivity of Nafion films using a combination of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, quartz crystal microbalance studies, neutron reflectometry, and impedance spectroscopy is reported. The aim is to further characterize the nanoscale patterned Nafion structures recently used as a key element in novel ion-to-electron transducers by Gluschke et al. To enable this, the electron beam patterning process is developed for large areas, achieving patterning speeds approaching 1 cm2 h−1, and patterned areas as large as 7 cm2 for the neutron reflectometry studies. It is ultimately shown that electron-beam patterning affects both the water uptake and the ionic conductivity, depending on film thickness. Type-II adsorption isotherm behavior is seen for all films. For thick films (≈230 nm), a strong reduction in water uptake with electron-beam patterning is found. In contrast, for thin films (≈30 nm), electron-beam patterning enhances water uptake. Notably, for either thickness, the reduction in ionic conductivity arising from electron-beam patterning is kept to less than an order of magnitude. Mechanisms are proposed for the observed behavior based on the known complex morphology of Nafion films to motivate future studies of electron-beam processed Nafion. |
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| Keywords: |
Bioelectronics, electron-beam patterning, ionic conductivity, nafion, neuromorphic computing |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
This work was funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) underDP170104024 and DP170102552, and the Welsh European Funding Office (European Regional Development Fund) through the Sêr Cymru II Program. P.M. is a Sêr Cymru Research Chair and an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland. A.B.M. contribution was under the Sêr Cymru II fellowship and the results incorporated in this work had received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 663830. The work was performed in part using the NSW and Queens-land nodes of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) and the Electron Microscope Unit (EMU) within the Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre (MWAC) at UNSW. The electron-beam patterning was performed in part at Lund Nano Lab at Lund University. The authors acknowledge the provision of beamtime by ANSTO under proposal number P8773. |
| Issue: |
8 |