Predicting molecular properties and phase behaviors for conjugated polymers
Open Access
- Author:
- Zhang, Wenlin
- Graduate Program:
- Chemical Engineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 13, 2017
- Committee Members:
- Scott Thomas Milner, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Scott Thomas Milner, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Enrique Daniel Gomez, Committee Member
Kristen Ann Fichthorn, Committee Member
William George Noid, Outside Member - Keywords:
- Conjugated Polymers
Molecular Simulations - Abstract:
- Conjugated polymers, though still outperformed by their inorganic counterparts, are promising materials for flexible electronics, including field-effect transistors and solar cells. The mechanical and electrical properties of this class of materials depend strongly on the morphological order. In order to design new materials and optimize existing polymers, establishing concrete links between fundamental molecular properties and structural order is necessary. As consequence, the ability to predict the properties of novel materials from their molecular structures is essential. This dissertation focuses on predicting fundamental properties and phase be- haviors of conjugated polymers from molecular structures. We develop tools and methods, combining molecular simulations and analytical theories, to predict ma- terial parameters, including the chain stiffness, the nematic coupling constant, and the Flory-Huggins χ parameter, for conjugated polymers. These fundamental parameters govern the mesoscale structures and phase behaviors for chains in melts and solutions, in turn affect the mechanical and electrical properties of conjugated polymers in the final semi-crystalline state. Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we also investigate the role of thermal fluctuations in the performance of crystalline conjugated polymers. We show that thermal fluctuations can lead to cumulative lattice disorder in conjugated polymers, in turn enhance the inter-chain charge transport. Because the fluctuations of crystal shape are related to the mechanical properties of conjugated polymers, we can also obtain the elastic moduli for crystalline conjugated polymers by measuring the fluctuating box sizes in MD simulations. Altogether, this dissertation reports our progress on predicting the electrical and mechanical properties from molecular structures for conjugated polymers in both the precursor (melt and solution) and the crystalline states. Our results lay the foundation for understanding the structure-property relations of conjugated polymers in their final semicrystalline forms.