Researchers must find a sustainable way of providing the power our modern lifestyles demand.

Building better batteries

http://nathan.instras.com/ResearchProposalDB/doc-109.pdf

A review on polymer nanofibers by electrospinning and their applications in nanocomposites

The large-scale practical application of fuel cells will be difficult to realize if the expensive platinum-based electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reactions (ORRs) cannot be replaced by other efficient, low-cost, and stable electrodes. Here, we report that vertically aligned nitrogen-containing carbon nanotubes (VA-NCNTs) can act as a metal-free electrode with a much better electrocatalytic activity, long-term operation stability, and tolerance to crossover effect than platinum for oxygen reduction in alkaline fuel cells. In air-saturated 0.1 molar potassium hydroxide, we observed a steady-state output potential of –80 millivolts and a current density of 4.1 milliamps per square centimeter at –0.22 volts, compared with –85 millivolts and 1.1 milliamps per square centimeter at –0.20 volts for a platinum-carbon electrode. The incorporation of electron-accepting nitrogen atoms in the conjugated nanotube carbon plane appears to impart a relatively high positive charge density on adjacent carbon atoms. This effect, coupled with aligning the NCNTs, provides a four-electron pathway for the ORR on VA-NCNTs with a superb performance.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/323/5915/760.full.pdf

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube arrays with high electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction.

Research in the use of organic polymers as the active semiconductors in light-emitting diodes has advanced rapidly, and prototype devices now meet realistic specifications for applications. These achievements have provided insight into many aspects of the background science, from design and synthesis of materials, through materials fabrication issues, to the semiconductor physics of these polymers.

Electroluminescence in conjugated polymers

A general all-atom force field for atomistic simulation of common organic molecules, inorganic small molecules, and polymers was developed using state-of-the-art ab initio and empirical parametrization techniques. The valence parameters and atomic partial charges were derived by fitting to ab initio data, and the van der Waals (vdW) parameters were derived by conducting MD simulations of molecular liquids and fitting the simulated cohesive energies and equilibrium densities to experimental data. The combined parametrization procedure significantly improves the quality of a general force field. Validation studies based on large number of isolated molecules, molecular liquids and molecular crystals, representing 28 molecular classes, show that the present force field enables accurate and simultaneous prediction of structural, conformational, vibrational, and thermophysical properties for a broad range of molecules in isolation and in condensed phases. Detailed results of the parametrization and validation f...

COMPASS: An ab Initio Force-Field Optimized for Condensed-Phase ApplicationsOverview with Details on Alkane and Benzene Compounds

When silvery films of the semiconducting polymer, trans‘polyacetylene’, (CH)x, are exposed to chlorine, bromine, or iodine vapour, uptake of halogen occurs, and the conductivity increases markedly (over seven orders of magnitude in the case of iodine) to give, depending on the extent of halogenation, silvery or silvery-black films, some of which have a remarkably high conductivity at room temperature.

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA041866.pdf

Synthesis of electrically conducting organic polymers: halogen derivatives of polyacetylene, (CH)x

Doped polyacetylene forms a new class of conducting polymers in which the electrical conductivity can be systematically and continuously varied over a range of eleven orders of magnitude. Transport studies and far-infrared transmission measurements imply a metal-to-insulator transition at dopant concentrations near 1%.

Electrical Conductivity in Doped Polyacetylene.

Since the initial discovery in 1977, that polyacetylene (CH)(x), now commonly known as the prototype conducting polymer, could be p- or n-doped either chemically or electrochemically to the metallic state, the development of the field of conducting polymers has continued to accelerate at an unexpectedly rapid rate and a variety of other conducting polymers and their derivatives have been discovered. Other types of doping are also possible, such as "photo-doping" and "charge-injection doping" in which no counter dopant ion is involved. One exciting challenge is the development of low-cost disposable plastic/paper electronic devices. Conventional inorganic conductors, such as metals, and semiconductors, such as silicon, commonly require multiple etching and lithographic steps in fabricating them for use in electronic devices. The number of processing and etching steps involved limits the minimum price. On the other hand, conducting polymers combine many advantages of plastics, for example, flexibility and processing from solution, with the additional advantage of conductivity in the metallic or semiconducting regimes; however, the lack of simple methods to obtain inexpensive conductive polymer shapes/patterns limit many applications. Herein is described a novel, simple, and cheap method to prepare patterns of conducting polymers by a process which we term, "Line Patterning".

"Synthetic Metals": A Novel Role for Organic Polymers (Nobel Lecture).

‘Polyaniline’: Protonic acid doping of the emeraldine form to the metallic regime

The emeraldine salt form of polyaniline, conducting in the metallic regime, can be synthesized electrochemically as a film exhibiting a well defined fibrillar morphology closely resembling that of polyacetylene. Cyclic voltammograms of chemically synthesized and electrochemically synthesized polyaniline are essentially identical. Probable chemical changes which occur and the compounds which are formed when chemically synthesized poly-aniline is electrochemically oxidized and reduced between –0.2 and 1.0 V vs. SCE in aqueous HCl solutions at pH values ranging from –2.12 (6.0 mol dm–3) to 4.0 have been deduced from cyclic voltametric studies. These are shown to be consistent with previous chemical and conductivity studies of emeraldine base and emeraldine salt forms of polyaniline. It is proposed that the emeraldine salt form of polyaniline has a symmetrical conjugated structure having extensive charge delocalization resulting from a new type of doping of an organic polymer–salt formation rather than oxidation which occurs in the p-doping of all other conducting polymer systems.

Alan G. MacDiarmid

Papers

Synthesis of electrically conducting organic polymers: halogen derivatives of polyacetylene, (CH)x

Electrical Conductivity in Doped Polyacetylene.

"Synthetic Metals": A Novel Role for Organic Polymers (Nobel Lecture).

‘Polyaniline’: Protonic acid doping of the emeraldine form to the metallic regime

Polyaniline, a novel conducting polymer. Morphology and chemistry of its oxidation and reduction in aqueous electrolytes