Poly­(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) is certainly the most known and most used conductive polymer because it is commercially available and shows great potential for organic electronic, photovoltaic, and thermoelectric applications. Studies dedicated to PEDOT films have led to high conductivity enhancements. However, an exhaustive understanding of the mechanisms governing such enhancement is still lacking, hindered by the semicrystalline nature of the material itself. In this article, we report the development of highly conductive PEDOT films by controlling the crystallization of the PEDOT chains and by a subsequent dopant engineering approach using iron­(III) trifluoromethanesulfonate as oxidant, N-methyl pyrrolidone as polymerization rate controller and sulfuric acid as dopant. XRD, HRTEM, Synchrotron GIWAXS analyses and conductivity measurements down to 3 K allowed us to unravel the organization, doping, and transport mechanism of these highly conductive PEDOT materials. N-methyl pyrrolidone promotes bigger crystallites and structure enhancement during polymerization, whereas sulfuric acid treatment allows the replacement of triflate anions by hydrogenosulfate and increases the charge carrier concentration. We finally propose a charge transport model that fully corroborates our experimental observations. These polymers exhibit conductivities up to 5400 S cm–1 and thus show great promise for room temperature thermoelectric applications or ITO alternative for transparent electrodes.

Mechanical rubbing of polymer films has been widely used in the liquid crystal display industry to prepare oriented alignment layers of polyimides. We show that this fast orientation method can be successfully applied to a large palette of different π-conjugated systems, i.e., p-and n-type semiconducting homopolymers and alternating copolymers. Transmission electron microscopy, grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and UV−vis absorption spectroscopy reveal that both, the temperature of the films during rubbing and the molecular weight of the polymer strongly influence the level of orientation. For polythiophenes and polyfluorenes, the dependence of the orientational order parameter on the rubbing temperature (T rub ) was determined. A strong increase of alignment with T rub is explained by the progressive alignment of higher molecular weight fractions at higher T rub . The disordering of alkyl side chains allows the hairy-rod shaped macromolecules to disentangle and align during rubbing. In addition, for certain conjugated polymers, the in-plane orientation, crystallinity, and polymorphism of the rubbed films can be substantially improved/modified by postdeposition thermal or solvent vapor annealing. This high level of orientation results in highly anisotropic optical and electronic properties (UV−vis absorption, fluorescence, charge transport).

Ternary metal chalcogenide nanocrystals (NCs) offer exciting opportunities as novel materials to be explored on the nanoscale showing optoelectronic properties tunable with size and composition. CuInS (CIS) NCs are the most widely studied representatives of this family as they can be easily prepared with good size control and in high yield by reacting the metal precursors (copper iodide and indium acetate) in dodecanethiol (DDT). Despite the widespread use of this synthesis method, both the reaction mechanism and the surface state of the obtained NCs remain elusive. Here, we perform in situ X-ray diffraction using synchrotron radiation to monitor the pre- and postnucleation stages of the formation of CIS NCs. SAXS measurements show that the reaction intermediate formed at 100 °C presents a periodic lamellar structure with a characteristic spacing of 34.9 Å. WAXS measurements performed after nucleation of the CIS NCs at 230 °C demonstrate that their growth kinetics depend on the degree of precursor conversion achieved in the initial stage at 100 °C. NC formation requires the cleavage of S-C bonds. We reveal by means of combined 1D and 2D proton and carbon NMR analyses that the generated dodecyl radicals lead to the formation of a new thioether species R-S-R. The latter is part of a ligand double layer, which consists of dynamically bound dodecanethiolate ligands as well as of head-to-tail bound R-S-R molecules. This ligand double layer and a high ligand density (3.6 DDT molecules per nm) are at the origin of the apparent difficulty to functionalize the surface of CIS NCs obtained with the DDT method.

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Supercapacitors offer high power densities but require further improvements in energy densities for widespread commercial applications. In addition to the conventional strategy of using large surface area materials to enhance energy storage, recently, matching electrolyte ion sizes to material pore sizes has been shown to be particularly effective. However, synthesis and characterization of materials with precise pore sizes remain challenging. Herein, we propose to evaluate the layered structures in graphene derivatives as being analogous to pores and study the possibility of ion sieving. A class of pillared graphene based materials with suitable interlayer separation were synthesized, readily characterized by X-ray diffraction, and tested in various electrolytes. Electrochemical results show that the interlayer galleries could indeed sieve electrolyte ions based on size constrictions: ions with naked sizes that are smaller than the interlayer separation access the galleries, whereas the larger ions are restricted. These first observations of ion sieving in pillared graphene-based materials enable efficient charge storage through optimization of the d-spacing/ion size couple.

We determined the self part of the intermediate scattering function in liquid polyethyleneoxide ͑PEO͒ and PEO-alkali iodide complexes by means of neutron spin-echo spectroscopy and molecular dynamics ͑MD͒ computer simulations. We present the first accurate quantitative results on the segmental dynamics in the time range up to 1 ns and the wave-vector range from a few nm Ϫ1to approximately 20 nm Ϫ1 . We investigate the influence of polymer chain length, salt concentration, and cation type. We find that the neutron data and MD data for pure PEO agree very well. A relatively small concentration of dissolved salt ͑1 metal ion per 15 monomers͒ leads to a slowing down of the segmental motions by an order of magnitude. Here, the MD simulations agree qualitatively. Increasing the chain length from 23 to 182 monomers has no significant effect except at the highest salt concentration. Similarly, changing the cation from Li to Na hardly makes any difference. The Rouse model does not adequately describe our data. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. ͓S0021-9606͑00͒51525-6͔ Amorphous polymer electrolytes provide an environment-friendly alternative for liquid electrolytes used in batteries, fuel cells, electrochemical displays, and chemical sensors.1 A polymer electrolyte is a complex of a polar polymer with a metal salt. In order to optimize performance of applications, it is of fundamental importance to understand the mechanism of ion transport, which is closely coupled to the segmental motions of the polymer chain. The systems most studied are poly͑ethyleneoxide͒ ͑PEO͒ and poly͑propyleneoxide͒ ͑PPO͒ salt complexes.From Brillouin light scattering of PPO-salt systems 2 and MD simulations of PEO-NaI systems 3 it appears that the Na ϩ ions form crosslinks between different oxygen atoms within a polymer chain, which causes slowing down of movement of polymer segments. Quasielastic neutron scattering measurements on the PPO-LiClO 4 complex have confirmed this effect, but because of the limited energy resolution it was impossible to obtain quantitative results for the effect of solvated salt on the structural relaxation.4 Londono et al. 5 have performed neutron diffraction with isotopic Li substitution in combination with MD simulations in order to determine the partial pair distribution function g Li,O (r). They obtained a Li-O coordination number of about 3.5 for PEOLiI ͑O:Mϭ5, which is the number of ether oxygens of the polymer chain per metal ion͒, confirming crosslinking between cations and ether oxygens. It has been shown that the conductivity characteristics for PPO-Li salt and PPO-Na salt are very similar.6 Therefore, we expect that the influence of Li and Na on the polymer dynamics in PEO is similar.Until today, no quantitative results were available on the local dynamics of the backbone segments of the polymer nor on the influence of various parameters such as salt concentration, polymer chain length, and different ions. Neutron spin echo ͑NSE͒ is the technique of choice regarding energy resolution and wave-vector rang...

Structural relaxation in viscous glycerol has been followed from 5.9 ps to 3.7 ns by coherent neutron scattering around the structure factor maximum. In a 100 K interval, the line shape of the decay function shows no significant temperature dependence; the mean relaxation time scales accurately with viscosity. Interparticle correlations decay slower and with less stretching than self correlations at similar wave numbers.

Tin sulfide nanoparticles have a great potential for use in a broad range of applications related to solar energy conversion (photovoltaics, photocatalysis), electrochemical energy storage, and thermoelectrics. The development of chemical synthesis methods allowing for the precise control of size, shape, composition, and crystalline phase is essential. We present a novel approach giving access to monodisperse square SnS nanoplatelets, whose dimensions can be adjusted in the range of 4-15 nm (thickness) and 15-100 nm (edge length). Their growth occurs via controlled assembly of initially formed polyhedral seed nanoparticles, which themselves originate from an intermediate tetrachlorotin-oleate complex. The SnS nanoplatelets crystallize in the α-SnS orthorhombic herzenbergite structure (space group Pnma) with no evidence of secondary phases. Electron tomography, high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction combined with image simulations evidence the presence of ordered Sn vacancy rich (100) planes within the SnS nanoplatelets, in accordance with their slightly S-rich composition observed. When using elemental sulfur instead of thioacetamide as the sulfur source, the same reaction yields small (2-3 nm) spherical SnS2 nanoparticles, which crystallize in the berndtite 4H crystallographic phase (space group P3m1). They exhibit quantum confinement (E(g) = 2.8 eV vs 2.2 eV in the bulk) and room temperature photoluminescence. By means of electrochemical measurements we determined their electron affinity EA = -4.8 eV, indicating the possibility to use them as a substitute for CdS (EA = -4.6 eV) in the buffer layer of thin film solar cells.