Conductive, spin-cast carbon films from polyacrylonitrile

Abstract

Polyacrylonitrile films have been spin cast and pyrolyzed to produce thin (500–1500 Å) carbon films. These films have higher electrical conductivities than films produced by other methods at similar temperatures. The conductivity can be varied by at least four orders of magnitude by changing the pyrolysis temperature. Ultraviolet, infrared, and Raman spectroscopies were used to investigate the chemical structure of the films during different stages of processing.

Lithium storage in conductive sulfur-containing polymers

“…The polymer structure is similar to active carbon fibers or disordered carbon obtained by pyrolysing pure PAN [18,19]. The structure and degree of carbonization of such pyrolysates depend on the synthesis temperature as is shown in Scheme 2 [20,21]. However, when heating the mixture of PAN and S, sulfur as the reducer may facilitate the dehydrogenation and cyclization of PAN.…”

High intrinsic conductivity in ladder type polymers: Pyrolyzed BBB

“…We take this as evidence for a phase transfomation to a crosslinked conjugated ladder polymer with high intrinsic conductivity. We note that pyrolysis of certain polymers such as polyamides [14,18] and polyacrylonitrile [19] leads to a graphitized planar structure. A graphitized film usually reveals itself by the existence of delocalized Pauli-like spins as well as activated temperature-dependent resistivity.…”

Ultrafast optical response of IR-treated polyacrylonitrile films

“…The p bonding can be broken at the island edges either by the presence of nitrogen [14] (as in our case) or sp 3 sites or by aligning sp 2 sites with f $90°. The p bonding then is contained within an island.…”