A team of researchers with Purdue University has demonstrated the highest reported conductivity for an organic radical polymer to date, moving another step closer to their use in electronics. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes the technique they used and offer an opinion on why it produced the results they found.
Jodie Lutkenhaus, with Texas A&M University, writes a Perspectives piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue and discusses further possible research in the area. As Lutkenhaus notes, organic radical polymers (ORPs), flexible plastics, have properties that could make them suitable for use in a wide variety of applications, such as battery storage, electronics and memory devices. But that requires a technique to make them run faster. ORPs are made up of a hydrocarbon backbone and radical function groups that hang off of them like bulbs on a string of Christmas lights.
Read more: Researchers demonstrate highest reported conductivity for organic radical polymer
thumbnail courtesy of phys.org
