Reversible Electronic Solid–Gel Switching of a Conjugated Polymer

Johannes Gladisch, Eleni Stavrinidou, Sarbani Ghosh, Alexander Giovannitti, Maximilian Moser, Igor Zozoulenko, Iain McCulloch, Magnus Berggren

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

Conjugated polymers exhibit electrically driven volume changes when included in electrochemical devices via the exchange of ions and solvent. So far, this volumetric change is limited to 40% and 100% for reversible and irreversible systems, respectively, thus restricting potential applications of this technology. A conjugated polymer that reversibly expands by about 300% upon addressing, relative to its previous contracted state, while the first irreversible actuation can achieve values ranging from 1000–10 000%, depending on the voltage applied is reported. From experimental and theoretical studies, it is found that this large and reversible volumetric switching is due to reorganization of the polymer during swelling as it transforms between a solid-state phase and a gel, while maintaining percolation for conductivity. The polymer is utilized as an electroactive cladding to reduce the void sizes of a porous carbon filter electrode by 85%.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1901144
JournalAdvanced Science
Volume7
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2019

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