Identifying and imaging polymer functionality at high spatial resolution with core-loss EELS

•Carbon K-edge EELS can be collected from polymer materials with identifiable fine structure matching prior x-ray absorption literature.•Excellent parity is achieved with monochromation and direct electron detection, and features broaden intuitively with decreasing energy resolution.•The dominant limitation for spatial and energy resolution for polymers is dose, and the effect of the electron beam on the local chemistry can be demonstrated directly with dose series.•Sub-20 nm pixels should be achievable with