Close-packed polymer crystals from two-monomer-connected precursors.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27640812.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms12803 and PMC identifier 5031798.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The design of crystalline polymers is intellectually stimulating and synthetically challenging, especially when the polymerization of any monomer occurs in a linear dimension. Such linear growth often leads to entropically driven chain entanglements and thus is detrimental to attempts to realize the full potential of conjugated molecular structures. Here we report the polymerization of two-monomer-connected precursors (TMCPs) in which two pyrrole units are linked through a connector, yielding highly crystalline polymers. The simultaneous growth of the TMCP results in a close-packed crystal in polypyrrole (PPy) at the molecular scale with either a hexagonal close-packed or face-centred cubic structure, as confirmed by high-voltage electron microscopy, and the structure that formed could be controlled by simply changing the connector. The electrical conductivity of the TMCP-based PPy is almost 35 times that of single-monomer-based PPy, demonstrating its promise for application in diverse fields.