STTR Phase I: New Manufacturing Techniques to Produce High Quality Thin Films of Inherently Conducting Polymer Nanofibers Over a Large Area

这个小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目旨在开发一种制造工艺，该工艺可以在大面积上用均匀的固有导电聚合物（ICP）纳米纤维薄膜涂覆各种基材。 传统上，这些纳米结构的有机材料很难加工成覆盖大面积的薄膜，这限制了ICP的商业应用。 在该项目中，大面积导电涂层将通过利用一种技术来开发，在该技术中，有机材料沉积在几乎任何基底上，产生的废物很少，能源效率高。该项目的更广泛/商业影响将是通过克服与这些材料相关的一个关键挑战，有可能大大扩大ICP的适用性和市场规模。 ICP是电活性聚合物行业相对较新的领域，市场约为16亿美元。 电活性聚合物可用于静电材料、导电粘合剂和各种类型的电子器件。 除了其商业潜力外，该项目还将提高对分散特性和一维纳米结构加工的基本理解。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project aims to develop a manufacturing process that can coat a variety of substrates with uniform thin films of inherently conducting polymer (ICP) nanofibers over a large area. Traditionally, these nanostructured organic materials are difficult to process into thin films covering a large area, which has limited the commercial applicability of ICP. In this project, large area conductive coatings will be developed by utilizing a technique in which the organic material is deposited onto virtually any substrate with little waste generated and high energy efficiency. The broader/commercial impact of this project will be the potential to substantially extend the applicability and market size of ICPs by overcoming one of the key challenges associated with these materials. ICP is relatively new area of electroactive polymer industry which is an approximately $1.6 billion market. Electroactive polymers are useful in electrostatic materials, conducting adhesives, and various types of electronics. In addition to its commercial potential, this project will also improve the fundamental understanding of dispersion properties and the processing of one-dimensional nanostructures.