Abstract
The general features of polymer electrolytes formed from polymer/salt systems suitable for EXAFS studies are discussed. Complications arising from mixed morphology and the use of different drying procedures are addressed. The difficulties of detecting local structure contributions from the polymer chains in the presence of powerful anion and/or cation backscatterers are considered. Results are presented for bromine K‐edge EXAFS spectra of 
for samples subjected to three different drying regimes. Comparison of these results with previous studies of cation local structure strongly indicates the presence of 
entities that interact only modestly with the surrounding polymer, in contrast to the observed behavior for nickel and other divalent polymer electrolytes. Further results for bromine local structure in the amorphous regions (i) between salt‐containing spherulites, and (ii) within a large spherulite in the intergranular zones of 
show no difference in the EXAFS contribution from zinc nearest neighbors and a detectable small change in Br‐O distance.