Prediction of a Novel Electromechanical Response in Polar Polymers with Rigid Backbones: Contrasting Furan-Derived Nanothreads to Poly(Vinylidene Fluoride).
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39016328.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c01431.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
<i>Syn</i> furan nanothreads have all oxygen atoms arranged on one side of the thread backbone; these polar threads present intriguing opportunities in electromechanical response owing to their rigid ladder-like backbone. We retrained a C/H/O reactive force field to simulate their response to external electric field for both end-anchored individual threads and bulk nanothread crystals, contrasting the results to those for poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) polymer. Whereas the field induces a length-independent torque in PVDF through backbone rotation about σ bonds, furan-derived nanothreads generate a length-dependent torque by progressively twisting their rigid backbone. This mode of response couples the <i>rotational history</i> of the electric field to axial tension in the anchored thread. In simulations of densely packed <i>syn</i> furan nanothread crystals without anchors, the crystals pole in a field (∼3 GV/m at 300 K) similar to that seen in simulations of PVDF, suggesting that crystals of polar nanothreads can be ferroelectric.