Professor Taiho Park (CE) and In Young Song (M.S.-Ph.D. Integrated candidate) have developed a technique to manufacture well-defined block copolymer bilayer hybrid nanostructures. This technique enables polymerization on substrate in one-go, while also causing both layers to gain conductivity. The research outcome was posted in ACS Nano on Jun. 19.
Methods involving the use of light and electricity in polymerization process were already known from previous findings. The recent discovery is clearly different in that this technique allows the selective tuning of the thickness of block copolymers. Moreover, block copolymers can be polymerized on various substrates regardless of their surface, which is thought to play a vital role in increasing the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells.
The position of a Lithium ion affects the level of efficiency of solar cells. A block copolymer, which can be separated into two layers, can increase the efficiency by 280% when Lithium ions are placed on a single layer only.
The ability to control the length of block copolymers and its short polymerization time (a maximum of 30 minutes) are elements that make this newly-devised method captivating.