Resonant Soft X-Ray Scattering in Polymer Materials

Resonant soft X-ray scattering (RSoXS) is a powerful tool for chemically and orientationally resolved nano-to-mesoscale characterization of complex molecular materials. Through its development over the past 15 years, its use has been extended to uniquely characterize structures, not only dry, thin films for devices, coatings, photolithography, and liquid crystalline ordering, but also solvated nanostructures in biology for therapeutics and hydrated membranes for filtration or biosensing. Here, we review progress in this exciting and maturing technique with an eye toward the materials scientist or engineer who has little experience with RSoXS but would like to know more about how the technique would fit into their toolset.