Sub-microsecond molecular motion analysis of polymer resins via transmitted X-ray blinking

We developed transmitted X-ray blinking (TXB), a time-resolved transmission imaging technique with 900-nanosecond resolution for probing sub-microsecond molecular dynamics. TXB was applied to semi-crystalline polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and amorphous polyetherimide (PEI), two polymer resins with nearly identical X-ray absorption properties and indistinguishable static transmission images. Single-pixel autocorrelation analysis (spACF) of the TXB data revealed statistically significant differences in dynamic behavior between the two materials, consistent with results from diffracted X-ray blinking (DXB). Although conventional two-dimensional decay constant maps provided limited visual separation, further analysis using machine learning enabled clearer dynamic contrast and >90% classification accuracy. Spectral decomposition also identified periodic fluctuations in the 300-400 kHz range. These results demonstrate that TXB enables material differentiation based on intrinsic dynamic properties, even in the absence of static contrast, and offers new avenues for visualizing subtle motions in soft and biological systems.