Conducting polymers molecular devices based

Molecular Devices Based on Conducting Polymers 13.5.1 Diodes... 

The presence of polymer, solvent, and ionic components in conducting polymers reminds one of the composition of the materials chosen by nature to produce muscles, neurons, and skin in living creatures. We will describe here some devices ready for commercial applications, such as artificial muscles, smart windows, or smart membranes other industrial products such as polymeric batteries or smart mirrors and processes and devices under development, such as biocompatible nervous system interfaces, smart membranes, and electron-ion transducers, all of them based on the electrochemical behavior of electrodes that are three dimensional at the molecular level. During the discussion we will emphasize the analogies between these electrochemical systems and analogous biological systems. Our aim is to introduce an electrochemistry for conducting polymers, and by extension, for any electrodic process where the structure of the electrode is taken into account. 

These results illustrate that electrochemical techniques can be employed to synthesize a vast range of [Si(Pc)0]n-based molecular metals/conductive polymers with wide tunability in optical, magnetic, and electrical properties. Moreover, the structurally well-defined and well-ordered character of the polymer crystal structure offers the opportunity to explore structure/electro-chemical/collective properties and relationships to a depth not possible for most other conductive polymer systems. On a practical note, the present study helps to define those parameters crucial to the fabrication, from cheap, robust phthalocyanines, of efficient energy storage devices. 

K. Yoshino, K. Tada, A. Fujii, E.M. Conwell, A. Zakhidov, Novel photovoltaic devices based on donor-acceptor molecular and conducting polymer systems, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 44 (1997) 1315-1324. 

High quantum yield photochemical reactions of condensed-phase species may become useful for future optical applications such as molecular switches, optical limiters, and read-write data storage media. Toward these ends, much research has been conducted on novel nonlinear chemical-based materials such as conducting polymers and metal-organic species. Monitoring the early time-dependent processes of these photochemical reactions is key to understanding the fundamental mechanisms and rates that control the outcome of these reactions, and this could lead to improved speed and efficiencies of devices. 

The construction of intramolecular molecular system whose photo active molecule linked with conducting molecular wire is an important subject in realization of. molecular electronic or photonic devices. For such objectives, systematization of donor-photosensitizer-acceptor triad molecules into large molecular systems is one of the feasible approaches because the exquisite incorporation of the photosensitizer and a suitable electron donor and/or acceptor into a conducting polymeric chain is useful for various molecular systems based on the photoinduced electron transfer. With this in mind, we synthesized symmetrical donor-acceptor-donor triad molecules which can be polymerized by the normal electrochemical oxidation. By the polymerization, one-dimensional donor-acceptor polymers with porphyrin moieties separated by ordered oligothienyl molecular wire which is considered as a proto-type molecular device was obtained. 

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