New light shed on intensely studied material
The organic polymer PEDOT is one of the world's most intensely studied materials. Despite this, researchers at Linköping University have now demonstrated that the material functions in a completely different manner than previously believed. The result has huge significance in many fields of application.
PEDOT has unique properties, and is highly suitable for use in solar cells, electrodes, light-emitting diodes, soft displays, bioelectronic components, and many other applications. However, most articles are experimental in nature, and only a tiny fraction—fewer than one in a thousand—of the articles provide a theoretical understanding of the various aspects of the polymer. The same is true for the electronic structure of PEDOT.
"The age of trial and error research should be over. I cannot imagine how it would be possible today to develop a new material without having a deep theoretical understanding of the underlying principles that determine its properties," says Igor Zozoulenko, professor and head of the theory and modelling group at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Linköping University, Campus Norrköping.
He is also the main author of an article in ACS Applied Polymer Materials that presents a new theory of electronic structure and optical properties of PEDOT that overturns a large part of the corresponding previous research into PEDOT.
Read more.
