This paper introduces a technique of inducing bulk conductivity in a polymer. The technique uses coiled copper ‘cells’ embedded into a polymer during fabrication which can subsequently create highly redundant series-parallel networks. The preceding body of work aimed to improve the conductivity of non-conducting polymers by embedding particulates (of metal, carbon, etc.) into the polymer, or by...

Spintronics aims at developing a new generation of electronic materials for consumer products based on electron spin rather than on electron charge. Its main objective is the fabrication of new devices based on semiconductor materials with magnetic behavior (so called diluted magnetic semiconductors). These devices combine the manipulation of electrons as classically known in semiconductor devi...

Polymer brushes consisting of polystyrene (PS) chains bonded covalently to N-doped multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNx) were synthesized by a "grafting from" route using nitroxide mediated radical polymerization (NMRP).

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Characterization of molecular scale electronic devices generally involves deposition of a metal top electrode onto an organic film. During the evaporation process, high-energy granules of metals may lead to unwanted reactions between the organic molecules and deposited top electrodes. This can cause, as commonly reported, lasting damage which leaves most junctions either shorted or an open circ...

Acid-promoted polycondensation of 3,4-(ethylenedioxy)thiophene-2-carbaldehyde leads to a conjugated heavily p-doped poly(thiophene-methine), which can be dedoped leading to a low band-gap neutral polymer.

We report a highly transparent, low resistance Ag metal network templated by a cracked polymer thin film and its incorporation in an organic solar cell. The performance of this scalable metallic network is comparable to that of conventional ITO electrodes. This is a general approach to replace ITO in diverse thin film devices.

Self-healing materials can repair damage caused by mechanical wear, thereby extending lifetime of devices. A transparent, self-healing, highly stretchable ionic conductor is presented that autonomously heals after experiencing severe mechanical damage. The design of this self-healing polymer uses ion-dipole interactions as the dynamic motif. The unique properties of this material when used to e...

Porous sulphur-doped carbons have been prepared by using polythiophene (PTh) as carbon precursor and KOH as activating agent. The activation process was carried out under several operating conditions, i. e. a KOH/PTh weight ratio of 2 or 4, and reaction temperatures in the 600-850 oC range. The porous carbons thus obtained exhibit very large apparent surface areas and high pore volumes of up to...