The essence of the invention

Technology covers an innovative method of preparing mixed polymer brushes, which are stretched chains of polymers attached to a conductive substrate. Such structure can serve as a platform for directional conduction of electricity, which can be used as a layer that effectively reduces the work function of the conductive substrate or electrode.

State of the art

Dynamic development of the conjugated polymers meant that they can exhibit conductivity as high as metals. Conjugated polymers can be used in organic solar cells, chemical and biological sensors, field-effect transistors, and energy storage devices. Polymers are most often synthesized in bulk and deposited on surfaces as films using spin-coating in these applications. However, due to the low energy of interaction with the substrate (physical adsorption), they can easily delaminate and detach from the substrate, and bulk polymerization does not ensure sufficient ordering of macromolecules, which means that it is difficult to obtain materials with directional conductivity.

Solution

The innovation provides a method of creating stretched and permanently attached to the surface polymer chains composed of two types of polymers (conjugated and polyelectrolyte), which are molecularly arranged and oriented perpendicular to the substrate, which enables efficient transport of charge carriers.

This structure is characterized by:

• anisotropic conductivity of the polymer brush layer
• ultra-low work function 2.3 – 3.6 eV