ANION CLUSTERING AND FRACTAL PATTERN GROWTH IN ION CONDUCTING POLYMERIC MATRIX

Mobile iodine anions are shown to cluster in large size isotropic frac tal patterns (Diffusion Limited Aggregates, DLA) in ion conducting pol ymeric system PEO:NaI (and also PEO:NH4I). Anisotropic ''tree-like'' p atterns have also been obtained by deliberately creating physical inte rface such that the aggregating species arrive only from one direction . The aggregating species is I-3(-) which may thermally relax leading to the breaking up of the fractal arms. It is further shown that in th e regions where I-2 (instead of I-3(-)) gets formed, a ''strain-field' ' results forbidding further anion clustering.