HIGHLY ORIENTED HIGHLY CONDUCTING POLYMERS - A NEW CLASS OF ELECTROACTIVE MATERIALS - HIPOCOL

Objective

Two years ago conductivity values nearly as high as copper were published for highly oriented polyacetylene, a prototype material for conducting polymers. The reasons for this elevated conductivity are still not clear. The objective of our proposal is to discover the mechanisms responsible for these high values, to connect them with other material properties and to improve systematically the quality of synthesis.
The HICOPOL consortium has in joint effort clarified the conditions under which a chemical synthesis for very highly conducting material can be carried out. More important, based on experiments and on theoretical work by the various partners and using the relevant information available in the published literature, the mechanism of the electrical conductivity has been elucidated and is now fairly well understood. The knowledge obtained from studying polyacetylene is of paramount importance to optimize those conducting polymers which are actually in industrial use like polyaniline, polypyrrole and polythiophene. Moreover it will help to improve those conjugated polymers which will be used for organic light emitting devices. The expertise gained from the necessity to deal with the electrical conductivity of polymer chains, bundles and fibers will be used in future cooperative projects on the newly discovered carbon nanotubes and their assessment for technological uses. The experimental technique developed for conductivity measurements on a micrometer scale has merged into the new activity of molecular rectification and molecular electronics, which the members of the consortium are attacking now with great enthusiasm.
Only the combination of different specialized experimental methods on exactly the same type of samples allows the evaluation of these parameters and requires the collaboration of different groups. These proposed methods are optical spectroscopy and Raman investigations, DC- and AC- conductivity, transient photoconductivity and photoinduced absorption, nuclear magnetic resonance and electron spin resonance, electron energy loss spectroscopy, and structural investigations. The results obtained for polyacetylene should then, hopefully be transferred to other conducting polymers.

Fields of science

• engineering and technology › materials engineering › fibers
• natural sciences › physical sciences › electromagnetism and electronics
• natural sciences › chemical sciences › polymer sciences
• natural sciences › physical sciences › optics › spectroscopy

Programme(s)

• FP2-BRITE/EURAM 1 - Specific research and technological development programme (EEC) in the fields of industrial manufacturing technologies and advanced materials applications (BRITE/EURAM), 1989-1992

Topic(s)

Data not available

Call for proposal

Data not available

Funding Scheme

Data not available

Coordinator

Max-Planck-Institut für Festkorpforschung

Address

Heisenbergstraße 1
7000 Stuttgart
Germany

Participants (5)

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique des Macromolécules de Strasbourg

France

Address

6 Rue Boussingault
67083 Strasbourg

Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe Technik und Umwelt GmbH

Germany

Address

76021 Karlsruhe

Karl Franzens Universitat Graz

Austria

Address

Petersgasse 16
8010 Graz

Université de Montpellier II (Université des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc)

France

Address

2 Place Eugène Bataillon
34095 Montpellier

Université de Nantes

France

Address

2 Rue De La Houssiniere
44072 Nantes