Microwave impedance microscopy of high specific surface area carbon

Microwave impedance microscopy (MIM) is a novel scanning probe technique used to measure local electrical impedance under an AFM tip operating at some fixed electrical resonant frequency. Each point in the surface scan records sample elevation and power return loss, thus generating a topographical image with an overlaid impedance map. Various high specific surface area (SSA) carbon materials, recently demonstrated to have excellent performance as electrochemical capacitor electrodes, were investigated via MIM. Results of MIM studies on these materials may be used to provide additional understanding of transport properties and complement conventional methods of surface area measurement.