Controlled Molecular Assemblies of Electrically Conductive Polymers

Abstract

The Langmuir-Blodgett technique has recently been used to manipulate a variety of electroactive conjugated polymers into multilayer thin films with well defined layered structures and ordered molecular organizations. Multilayer thin films have been successfully fabricated from amphiphilic conjugated polymers and their precursors and from non-surface active conjugated polymers. In most cases, the molecular organizations of these films have been found to be highly anisotropic. The structures of these films have been probed by high energy synchrotron radiation, reflection-absorption infrared and low angle x-ray diffraction techniques. Electrical measurements have also revealed highly anisotropic behavior with the in-plane conductivities of these multilayer structures typically being many orders of magnitude greater than their transverse conductivities. The unique layered structures of these films, in some cases, have also been shown to give rise to unusually large dielectric constants over a wide frequency range. In this chapter, the fabrication, characterization and electrical properties of these new thin film multilayer structures are discussed.