Purdue researchers have created a transparent polymer film that also conducts electricity, introducing an inexpensive organic material for applications such as the screens of electronic devices.
While some polymers can already conduct electricity with the help of a process called chemical doping, none have yet been made that conduct just as well in a transparent form. This combination could find use in TV, phone and computer screens that currently use a relatively expensive inorganic material, indium tin oxide, to serve as a transparent conductor. The researchers detail their discovery in a paper published on March 23 in Science.
“The precursors of this new polymer are made on the ton scale,” said Bryan Boudouris, the Robert and Sally Weist Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering. “Having a conducting transparent material from carbon-based materials would be significant.”
The polymer film, which has the look and feel of glass, can be more cheaply produced on a large scale than indium tin oxide because it originates from earth-abundant materials. Its cost effectiveness also has advantages over polymers already used for electronics that rely on expensive chemistry and chemical doping to achieve high conductivity. Existing conducting polymers also typically absorb light due to their conjugated, or delocalized, electron network structure.
“It’s tough to engineer something that is conjugated to be transparent,” said Brett Savoie, an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering. “So, we started with a completely new non-conjugated polymer and modified it to conduct.”
Modifications involved adding radical groups that are already transparent but typically wouldn’t conduct electricity within a polymer. “Our idea was, could we use polymers easier to make on a large scale but also get them to be electronically active?” Boudouris said.
Savoie simulated how the radical groups electronically communicate with each other across the polymeric material, a property known as electrical percolation, to figure out how to make the polymer a good conductor. The simulations showed that it was critical to incorporate more radicals than previous studies had been able to achieve, and also make the polymer soft enough that the radical groups could associate within the material. Boudouris accomplished this by synthesizing a material that had both a high density of radical sites and could flow at low temperatures, resulting in a transparent film processed near room temperature.
This polymer is not only transparent, but could conduct electricity competitively with commercially available conjugated polymers. “The simulations gave us the design principles that will allow us to make even better conductors in the future,” Boudouris said.
The new polymer also provides insights for future research to be conducted by Boudouris, Savoie and other faculty at the Purdue-based Materials Innovation for Bioelectronics from Intrinsically-stretchable Organics (Mi-Bio) center, which aims to produce tailor-made polymers for biomedical applications.
“Conducting polymers are different from other conductors in that they can reversibly exchange ions and analytes with liquid media—kind of like a sponge—and this creates all kinds of interesting sensing and device applications.” Savoie said.
Learn more: New glass-like polymer could conduct electricity for transparent electronics
The Latest on: Transparent electronics
[google_news title=”” keyword=”transparent electronics” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Transparent electronics
- Unlocking a US$ 3.7 Billion Opportunity: The Rise of Stretchable Conductive Material in Wearables Electronicson April 24, 2024 at 1:57 am
The stretchable conductive material market is expected to experience substantial growth during the forecast period. The market size is projected to reach US$ 3.7 billion by 2033, with a significant ...
- Samsung Subsidiary Invests in DePIN Firm Roamon April 23, 2024 at 4:29 pm
The Samsung subsidiary Samsung Next, an affiliate of Samsung Electronics, has made an undisclosed investment in the DePIN player Roam.
- Scientists stencil-paint carbon nanotube components for flexible transparent electronicson April 23, 2024 at 9:23 am
Researchers from Skoltech, MIPT, and elsewhere have found a fast and inexpensive way to create geometric patterns in carbon nanotube films. The resulting films turned out to have superior properties ...
- Business Analytics BPO Services Market Surges: Estimated to Reach US$ 29 Billion by 2033on April 23, 2024 at 5:28 am
Business Analytics BPO Services Market is estimated to hit a worth of US$ 29 Billion at 14% CAGR by forecast period 2033 | Data by Future Market Insights, Inc.
- Samsung Electronics Ranks First in Global Digital Signage Market for 15th Consecutive Yearon April 23, 2024 at 5:02 am
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced that it has been named the number one signage manufacturer for the fifteenth consecutive year by market research firm Omdia, once again demonstrating its ...
- Multilayer Transparent Conductors Market To Reach USD 12.7 Billion By 2032 | DataHorizzon Researchon April 22, 2024 at 2:40 am
The multilayer transparent conductors market size was valued at USD 5.1 Billion in 2023 and is expected to reach a market size of USD 12.7 Billion by 2032 at a CAGR of 10.6%.Fort Collins, Colorado, ...
- Industrial Electronicson April 21, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Sensor Technology has torque sensor accurate to ±0.1% of full-scale, that has its sensing head and electronics in separate housings. “This has two advantages,” according to the company. “The sensing ...
- transparent oledon April 19, 2024 at 4:59 pm
(Whenever we can have one of those again, anyway.) The key to this project is a pair of transparent CrystalFonts OLED displays, just like the ones [Sean Hodgins] recently used to produce his ...
- How do you dispose of old electronics and wires?on April 11, 2024 at 8:25 pm
So how should you dispose of e-waste? It's easy for electronics to pile up but at Repowered in St. Paul, they're breaking even bigger piles down. "They're looking for things were can reuse ...
via Bing News