Conducting polymers
AssigneeCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
InventorsThomas Ruther, Jean-Pierre Veder, Mike Horne, Paulo De Souza
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Abstract
There is described a process for forming a conformal film of conducting polymer onto one or more surfaces of a substrate by polymerising onto the one or more surfaces in a single step one or more conducting polymer precursors including one or more monomers in the presence of conductivity enhancing additives comprising one or more ionic liquids and one or more optional ionic dopants.
Claims22
A self-limiting electrografting polymerization process for forming a covalently bonded conformal film of an electrically insulating solid ion conducting polymer onto a surface of an electrically conducting substrate, wherein the polymer has conductivity enhancing additives entrained therein, the process comprising the step of:
- initiating formation and surface binding of the polymer film by electrografting an initiator radical ion generated from electrochemically active monomers comprising acrylate groups terminating polyethylene glycol chains onto the surface of the substrate which is polarized at a potential between −1.5 and −3.5 V in a three electrode electrochemical cell whereby the substrate is configured as a working electrode substrate,
- wherein the formation and surface binding of the polymer is carried out by contacting an electrolyte in the form of a non-ionic liquid solvent free precursor solution with the polarised substrate, the solution consisting of:
- monomers;
- and
- conductivity enhancing additives consisting of:
- one or more ionic liquids having a cation selected from a quaternary alkyl pyrrolidinium, alkyl piperidinium, alkyl imidazolium, alkyl boronium, and alkyl phosphonium and an anion selected from OTf, TSFI, FSI, or B(CN)4;
- and
- one or more ionisable salts comprising a cation selected from Li, Na, K, Be, Mg, Ca, B, Al, or Zn, charge balanced with an anion selected from TFSI, FSI, PF8, BF4, CF3SO3, (Alkyl)BF3, or (Alkyl)nB(CN)4-n, where n is from 0 to 4;
- wherein ionic liquid is present in the precursor solution in an amount of up to 40 wt % of the monomer, provided the precursor solution is a homogenous solution of monomers, ionic liquids and ionisable salts, and
- wherein on formation, the surface of the polymer film is free of non-ionic liquid solvent and has a uniform thickness of between 1 nm to 1000 nm, the film not deviating from a film mean thickness by more than ±10%, and wherein the polymer film has 80 to 100% of the conductivity enhancing additives entrained therein.
A self-limiting electrografting polymerisation process for forming a covalently bonded conformal film of an electrically insulating solid ion conducting polymer onto a surface of an electrically conducting 3D microstructured substrate, wherein the polymer has conductivity enhancing additives entrained therein, the process comprising the step of:
- initiating formation and surface binding of the polymer film by electrografting an initiator radical ion generated by electrochemically active monomers comprising acrylate groups terminating polyethylene glycol chains selected from diacrylate polyethylene glycol monomers or monoacrylate polyethylene glycol monomers onto the surface of the substrate which is polarised at a potential between −1.5 and −3.5 V in a three electrode electrochemical cell whereby the substrate is configured as a working electrode substrate, wherein the formation and surface binding of the polymer is carried out by contacting an electrolyte in the form of a non-ionic liquid solvent free precursor solution with the polarised substrate, the solution consisting of a homogenous solution of:
- monomers;
- and
- conductivity enhancing additives consisting of:
- ionic liquids selected from 1-methyl-1-propyl pyrrolidinium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (P13FSI) and 1-methyl-1-butyl pyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (P14TFSI), in an amount of up to 40 wt % of the monomer, provided the precursor solution is a homogenous solution of monomers, ionic liquids and ionisable salts selected from the group consisting of LiFSI and LiTFSI in an amount of 0.6 mol/kg or 1.0 mol/kg, and
- wherein on formation, the surface of the polymer filing is free of non-ionic liquid solvent and has a uniform thickness of between 1 nm to 1000 nm, the film not deviating from a film mean thickness by more than ±10%, and wherein the polymer film has from 80 to 100% of the conductivity enhancing additives entrained therein.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.