(April 6, 2015) Researchers
at the University of Houston have reported developing an efficient conductive
electron-transporting polymer, a long-missing puzzle piece that will allow
ultrafast battery applications.
The discovery relies upon a “conjugated redox polymer”
design with a naphthalene-bithiophene polymer, which has traditionally been
used for applications including transistors and solar cells. With the use of
lithium ions as dopant, researchers found it offered significant electronic
conductivity and remained stable and reversible through thousands of cycles of
charging and discharging energy.