Doped Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Coatings onto Chitosan: A Novel Approach for Developing a Bio-Based Flexible Electronic

Abstract

Conductive and flexible bio-based materials consisting of chitosan films coated with conductive poly­(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) were prepared. Thermal, optical, mechanical, morphological, wettability, and conductive properties were analyzed. In a very simple and effective method of chitosan film modification, a controlled volume of a P3HT solution was deposited onto a previously formed chitosan film, assisted by the spin coating method. Later, P3HT-coated chitosan films were doped by simple contact with an aqueous solution of HAuCl4. The use of HAuCl4 becomes attractive because the reports on the doping process in this type of material using this reagent are still scarce and recent to date. In addition, since this acid is a well-known metal nanoparticle precursor, its use opens new future perspectives for these materials into new applications. The effect of P3HT concentration and doping times on film properties was studied. Attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy and UV–Vis spectroscopy allowed us to demonstrate that the presence of the P3HT coating and its doping induce significant changes in the vibrational modes and optoelectronic properties of samples. Additionally, the images obtained by scanning electron microscopy showed a well-distributed and homogeneous coating on the surface of chitosan films. Measured conductivity values of doped film samples fall in the range from 821.3 to 2017.4 S/m, representing, to the best of our knowledge, the highest values reported in the literature for chitosan/chitin-based materials. Indeed, these values are around or even higher than those obtained for some materials purely consisting of conductive polymers.

Optical, morphological and photocatalytic properties of biobased tractable films of chitosan/donor-acceptor polymer blends

“…For example, the preparation and characterization of films constituted of chitosan and donor (or acceptor) materials (e.g., graphene, polyelectrolytes) have been reported by other authors for potential technological applications (e.g., gas transport, filtration, anticorrosion, biomedical, fuel cell, solar cells, batteries, sensors and supercapacitors) (Ahmed, Mulla, & Arfat, 2017;Eren, 2019;Yang, Liu, Kong, Kang, & Ran, 2019;Yu et al, 2020;Zainudin et al, 2018;Zolfagharian, Kaynak, Khoo, & Kouzani, 2018). However, due to the different hydrophobic/ hydrophilic characters of a blend`s component materials, immiscibility issues, regardless of the composition and nature of the polymers, can arise (Bonardd et al, 2020;Méndez-López et al, 2018). Therefore, there is a need to gain a deep understanding of the optimal methods and conditions for the appropriate preparation of these types of polymeric blend systems.…”

Biocatalytic Yarn for Peroxide Decomposition with Controlled Liquid Transport

“…[ 23,26,27 ] Natural fibers, like cotton, wool and silk, and biobased fibers derived from natural resources, like rayon and lyocell, also have many desirable characteristics, including strength, hydrophilicity, chemical functionality, and inherent biodegradability, [ 28–30 ] which makes them attractive for developing novel functional materials. [ 21,31–36 ] While several approaches to creating heterogeneous textile catalysts by covalent chemical, [ 19,37 ] photochemical [ 38 ] or layer‐by‐layer [ 39 ] reactions between textile fibers and enzymes have been explored, those evaluations focused on immersing or dispersing the catalytic fibers into liquids containing enzyme substrates. Also, although delivering flowing substrate to immobilized enzymes in a microfluidic reactor was developed, [ 40 ] the reactive flow of liquids within structurally self‐supporting biocatalytic textiles as described herein has not been described in any previous study.…”

Light-Energy-Harvested Flexible Wireless Temperature-Sensing Patch for Food Cold Storage

“…Flexible electronics with high adaptability and easy deployment has been widely applied. − The flexible electronics usually consists of a flexible substrate, the circuits assembled on a flexible substrate, and the electronic components or modules. The flexible substrate could be films such as polyimide (PI), poly­(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), and poly­(ethylene naphthalate) (PEN). − The circuits could be various metals such as gold (Au), silver (Ag), and copper (Cu) .…”