Preparation of New Conductive Plastics from Doped Conjugated Polymer Fillers

拟议研究项目的主要目标是开发以聚乙烯和共轭聚合物为导电材料的导电塑料。通过仔细地将电活性聚合物与聚乙烯共混，将制备出高度坚固的导电材料，从而为制备创新的功能聚乙烯材料开辟了新的机会。此外，新型导电聚乙烯材料将显著增加高性能材料的注射和旋转成型的可能性。旋转和注射成型被认为是生产聚乙烯产品最常用的技术之一，在过去的几年里一直在不断完善。因此，通过该合作项目开发的新技术对加拿大和工业合作伙伴非常重要，因为能够传输电荷的基于聚乙烯的功能性组件可以为包括消费品、电子产品和先进制造在内的各种商业部门带来普遍技术。为了实现这一目标，该项目将分为四个目标：1)通过DFT模拟优化掺杂体系；2)有机半导体聚合物(OSC)的掺杂；3)掺杂的OSC与聚乙烯的共混和共混形态的评价；以及4)导电塑料的制备。整个项目将在温莎大学的新研究设施中进行，托管最先进的材料和聚合物表征仪器。从目标1至4获得的信息将用于开发一种通用程序，以获得不同类型的导电塑料，并微调其物理和热机械性能。在这个研究项目结束时，工业合作伙伴将有一个新的战略(以及特定的技术诀窍)来生产具有微调机械、电子和物理性能的导电塑料。该研究项目是加拿大发展新的材料经济部门的重要组成部分，还将培训高素质的人员，以推动这一领域在市场上的发展。

The main objective of the proposed research project is the development of conductive plastics based on polyethylene and conjugated polymers as conductive materials. Through a careful blending of electroactive polymers with polyethylene, highly robust and electrically conductive materials will be prepared, thus opening new opportunity for the preparation of innovative functional polyethylene materials. Moreover, the new conductive polyethylene materials will significantly increase the possibilities for injection and rotational molding of high-performance materials. Considered one of the most used techniques to produce polyethylene products, rotational and injection molding have been constantly sophisticated over the past years. Therefore, the new technology developed through this collaborative project is of great importance for Canada and the industrial partner as functional polyethylene-based components capable of transporting electric charges can lead to prevalent technologies for various business sectors including for consumer goods, electronics, and advanced manufacturing. With a view to achieving this objective, the project will be divided in four aims: 1) Optimization of the doped system through DFT modelling; 2) doping of organic semiconducting polymers (OSCs); 3) blending of the doped OSC with polyethylene and evaluation of the blend morphology, and 4) preparation of conductive plastics. The entire project will be performed at the new research facility at the University of Windsor, hosting state-of-the-art instruments for the characterization of materials and polymers. The information gained from objectives 1 to 4 will be used to develop a general procedure to access different types of conductive plastics and fine-tune their physical and thermomechanical properties. At the end of this research project, the industrial partner will have a new strategy in hand (along with specific know-how) to generate conductive plastics with fine-tunable mechanical, electronic and physical properties. The research project is representing an important part of the development of a new economic sector for materials in Canada and will also allow for the training of highly qualified personnel to move this area forward in the market place.