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Fabrication and characterization of elastomeric semiconductive thiophene polymers by peroxide crosslinking

Polymer Journal volume 51, pages257–263(2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

In this study, semiconductive elastomers composed of homopolythiophene with disiloxane moieties were developed. The crosslinked molecular structure in the polythiophene elastomers was introduced by dicumyl peroxide, one of the typical peroxide crosslinking reagents. The elastomers were produced through a hot-pressing process above the melting point of the polythiophene. Stress–strain curves that included tensile tests and cycle loading–unloading tests defined the crosslinked polythiophenes as elastomers. Their electrical conductivities were evaluated by two-point measurements under nondeformation and uniaxial deformation states. The results indicated that the concentration of crosslinking reagents greatly influenced the mechanical and electrical properties of crosslinking polymers. With the addition of the crosslinking reagent in concentrations from 2.5 phr to 10.0 phr, elongation at break decreased largely from 95% to 51%, while excellent elastic recoveries were observed. In the electrical resistivity measurements, all the crosslinking polymers possessed high stability of electrical properties against elongation.

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Funding

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas “New Polymeric Materials Based on Element-Blocks (No.2401)” (24102009) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan. The synchrotron radiation experiments were performed at the BL03XU of SPring-8 with the approval of the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) (Proposal No. 2015A7210, 2015B7260, 2016A7210, and 2016B7260).

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  1. Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University, Rokko, Nada, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan

    Jian Shen, Iori Sugimoto, Takuya Matsumoto, Shohei Horike, Yasuko Koshiba, Kenji Ishida, Atsunori Mori & Takashi Nishino

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  1. Jian Shen
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Correspondence to Takashi Nishino.

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Shen, J., Sugimoto, I., Matsumoto, T. et al. Fabrication and characterization of elastomeric semiconductive thiophene polymers by peroxide crosslinking. Polym J 51, 257–263 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41428-018-0137-4

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