Cheap, flexible and sustainable plastic semiconductors will soon be a reality thanks to a breakthrough by chemists at the University of Waterloo.
Professor Derek Schipper and his team at Waterloo have developed a way to make conjugated polymers, plastics that conduct electricity like metals, using a simple dehydration reaction the only byproduct of which is water.
Cheap, flexible and sustainable plastic semiconductors will soon be a reality thanks to a breakthrough by chemists at the University of Waterloo.
Professor Derek Schipper and his team at Waterloo have developed a way to make conjugated polymers, plastics that conduct electricity like metals, using a simple dehydration reaction the only byproduct of which is water.
“Nature has been using this reaction for billions of years and industry more than a hundred,” said Schipper, a professor of Chemistry and a Canada Research Chair in Organic Material Synthesis. “It’s one of the cheapest and most environmentally friendly reactions for producing plastics.”
Schipper and his team have successfully applied this reaction to create poly(hetero)arenes, one of the most studied classes of conjugated polymers which have been used to make lightweight, low- cost electronics such as solar cells, LED displays, and chemical and biochemical sensors.
Read more at University of Waterloo
