Conducting polymer nanofibers

Electrospun nanofibers with electrical and electro-optical activities have received a great deal of interest in recent years because of their potential applications in nanoscale electronic and optoelectronic devices, for example nanowires, LEDs, photocells etc. Besides, one-dimensional (1-D) nanostmctures are the smallest dimensional stmctures for efficient transport of electrons and optical excitations. One of the potential future apphcations of conducting polymer nanofibers is as molecular wires, which are required to connect molecular devices to electrodes. For molecular devices, it is necessary to make nanowires with diameters in the order of the size of the molecular device. 

S. Chuangchote, T. Sagawa, and S. Yoshikawa, Fabrication and optical properties of electro-spun conductive polymer nanofibers from blended polymer solution, Jap. J. Appl. Phys., 47, 787-793 (2008). 

Another strategy for synthesizing conducting-polymer nanofiber arrays based on a two-phase system has also been reported by Li et al [165]. This system ensures a very low concentration of monomer, for instance pyrrole, in the polymerization process (Figure 16.17). 

Yang, G., Kampstra, K.L., Abidian, M.R., 2014. High performance conducting polymer nanofiber biosensors for detection of bio molecules. Adv. Mater. 26, 4954-4960. 

Han, J., Li, L., Fang, P., Guo, R., 2012a. Ultrathin MnOa nanorods on conducting polymer nanofibers as a new class of hierarchical nanostructures for high-performance supercapacitors. J. Phys. Chem. C 116, 15900-15907. 

One-Dimensional Charge Transport in Conducting Polymer Nanofibers... 

Recent Low Temperature Transport Experiments on Conducting Polymer Nanofibers ApplicabUity of Different ID Tunneling Models for Polymer Nanofibers Non-Ohmic Transport in Ughtly Doped Single Polymer Nanofibers at Low Temperatures... 

It has been reported that the diameter and shape of conducting polymer nanofibers can be affected by experimental parameters such as solution viscosity and conductivity, surface tension, the kind of polymer and solvent, appUed electrical potential and distance between the capillary and collection screen [201,202]. 

Electrospun conducting polymer nanofibers (diameter ca. 120 nm) also exhibited a desirable electrochromic property [438]. The electrospun conducting polymer nanofibers formed an interconnected network by solid/ swollen-state oxidative crosslinking without significant perturbation of the morphology. Nanofibers showed relatively fast switching times of 2-3 s. 

Figure 20.3 Electrochromic device based on electrospun conducting polymer nanofibers. The neutral state (a) and oxidized state (b) are shown. The precursor polymer becomes conjugated and electrochromic by the scheme shown in (c). From S. Jang, V. Seshadri, M. Khil, A. Kumar, M. Marquez, P. T. Mather, G. A. Sotzing, Welded electrochromic conductive polymer nanofibers by electrostatic spinning, Adv. Mater. 17, 2177 (2005). Copyright Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH Co. KGaA. Reproduced with permission...

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