Raj’s paper uses Electrochemical Strain Microscopy (ESM) to show that ion-uptake varies as a function of local structure in conjugated polymer films. It appeared only today in Nature Materials, along with a nice News and Views.  By using multimodal scanning probe microscopy to reveal how local structure controls ion uptake in electrochemically active polymers the work opens the door to the design of new materials for organic bioelectronics, polymer-based battery electrolytes, and related applications. Polymers from our collaborators in the Luscombe Group made the study possible.