Communications of the ACM
One Step Towards Faster Organic Electronics
A researcher works in the inert environment facility of Linkping University's Laboratory of Organic Electronics.
Credit: Linkping University
Organic electronics are inexpensive, flexible, and lightweight, but their weakness is speed. However, researchers at Linköping University in Sweden say they have developed new polymers that conduct better. Simone Fabiano, a researcher at Linköping's Laboratory of Organic Electronics, says in the latest generation of polymers, the charge is transported two to three times faster.
Researchers have until now tried to get the polymer chains to lie as well ordered as possible, believing it should be easy for the charge to jump between the chains if they are organized as rows. However, in experiments, the charge seems to travel as quickly in an unordered polymer as in an ordered, crystalline one.
Fabiano believes chemists are the key to developing faster electronic components because the issue is about design at the molecular level. "They can continue to reduce the defects and focus on enabling the polymer chains to make better contact with each other, rather than forming large crystals," Fabiano says.
From Linköping University
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