The method employed for depositing nanostructures of conducting polymers dictates potential uses in a variety of applications such as organic solar cells, light-emitting diodes, electrochromics, and sensors. A simple and scalable film fabrication technique that allows reproducible control of thickness, and morphological homogeneity at the nanoscale, is an attractive option for industrial applic...

The conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) has shown promise as air electrode in renewable energy technologies like metal-air batteries and fuel cells. PEDOT is based on atomic elements of high abundance and is synthesized at low temperature from solution. The mechanism of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) over chemically polymerized PEDOT:Cl still remains controversial with ...

Magnesium-ion conducting gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) based on PMMA with ethylene carbonate (EC) and propylene carbonate (PC) as a plasticizing solvent were prepared via the solution casting technique. Mg(CF3SO3)2 salt was used as source of magnesium ions, Mg 2+ . The variation of conductivity with salt concentrations, from 5 wt.% to 30 wt.% was studied. The gel polymer electrolyte with comp...

Electropolymerization of novel gallium Schiff-base complexes results in conducting metallopolymers containing either coordinatively saturated or unsaturated gallium metal centers. Depending on the chemical coordination of the metal centers, the embedded metal ions can act as seed points for the direct growth of size-controlled gallium sulfide nanoparticles in a conducting polymer, yielding a hy...

A visible light-cleavable polymer is synthesised to overcome the limitations of UV-sensitive polymers. Photocleavable BODIPY functionalized with an ATRP initiator and alkyne was used to obtain an amphiphilic block copolymer by conducting the click reaction and polymerization simultaneously. Micellar assembly of the polymer was disintegrated under visible light irradiation with controlled releas...

We report on the formation of conducting polymer nanoparticles (CPNs), stabilized by a collagen mimetic peptide (CMP)-polymer amphiphile. CPNs ranging from ∼15 to 40 nm were readily accessible upon modifying the amphiphile concentration. Surface presentation of CMPs on CPN precluded intra-/inter-particle trimerization, while preserving their ability to target collagen without pre-activation.

Silicon has a high-specific capacity as an anode material for Li-ion batteries, and much research has been focused on overcoming the poor cycling stability issue associated with its large volume changes during charging and discharging processes, mostly through nanostructured material design. Here we report incorporation of a conducting polymer hydrogel into Si-based anodes: the hydrogel is poly...

Several soft lithography-based polymer microfabrication techniques are described. These processes are capable of producing polymer microstructures from various materials including piezoelectric and conducting polymers. Two of the methods described are also capable of producing freely suspended microstructures, an important step in the implementation of polymers as functional mechanical structur...

Objectives • Elucidate rates and mechanisms of the degradation of polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) platinum electrode performance – Effect of electrolyte, potential (holding and cycling), time, and temperature • Develop non-platinum cathode electrocatalysts for PEFCs – Transition metal carbides and nitrides – Bi-metallic systems – Metal centers attached to electron-conducting polymer backbones