Speaker
Description
Intrinsically conductive polymers (ICPs) have recently attracted a lot of interest in the field of wearable energy storage devices. However, in their unmodified form, they do not dissolve in common organic solvents, which makes their wet processing challenging. Therefore, they need to be structurally modified (which negatively impacts their conjugation) and later be dissolved in toxic solvents, which is undesirable for potential scale-up and commercialization. Additionally, coating substrates such as paper, plastic, or fabric, that are attractive options in wearable electronics is challenging, due to compatibility issues as well as surface defects that arise during wet processing. To this end, solvent-free methods for ICPs processing has been extensively explored in the past decade. Among dry methods, oxidative chemical vapor deposition (oCVD) has shown to be a promising one providing the possibility for a one-step ICP synthesis and film formation on any desired substrate.
In this work, polypyrrole as one of the most promising ICPs with widespread applications in wearable electronics has been synthesized by oCVD. A record conductivity of 137 S/cm is achieved by tuning the reaction condition at a low temperature of 40 C. The deposition rate and doping level could be controlled by reactor pressure, substrate temperature and reactants ratio. These parameters are also used to uniformly and conformally coat the 3D network of the fabric, resulting in a high specific surface area. The polymer-coated fabric was then tested for energy storage application by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge measurements and cycling stability. The results show that ICPs processing could be used as a promising method for coating of unconventional substrates (fabric in this case). Due to its compatibility with roll-to-roll manufacturing , it is an attractive option for scale-up and commercialization in the future.
| Speaker Country | Netherlands |
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