Electrically Conductive Plastic Polymer

AustinSlacker writes to mention Fox news is reporting that a Dutch researcher is announcing a breakthrough in plastics. A new way of rebuilding plastics could allow them to conduct electricity just as well as the silicon wafers currently used in electronic gadgets. "Prins discovered that in plastics, the movement of electric charges was mainly hindered by the shape of the polymer, the chain-like molecular structure [that is] the basis of each kind of plastic. Prins extended the work of a German group that had reshaped a polymer to form a ladder-like structures. By bombarding the specially developed plastic with electrons from a particle accelerator, she was able to study rapid electrical reactions and demonstrate the new plastic's ability to conduct electricity much better than regular plastic and as well as silicon chips."

Re:let me know when copper is an insulator.

[friedman101]

A bigger barrier to entry might be that this conducting plastic cannot function as a semiconductor. Lots of materials conduct electricity, lots insulate, few can do both.

Re:Bad news, good news

[apocalysque]

actually, polymers are inherently more flexible than other plastics. this may actually make some products more durable. think of it this way: glass = silicon, rubber = polymer. which one breaks easier?

this misses the point entirely though, the main advantage is that the manufacturing process would be theoretically less expensive. much of the cost and difficulty with silicon chips today is involved with the manufacture/conditioning of the silicon wafers. plastics are very cheap these days.

Re:Possible use in solar cells?

[DerangedAlchemist]

Polymer solar cells have already been made, there are some efficiency issues but they are incredibly cheap. The problem with them is that they disintegrate very quickly. As far as I understood, this was the real problem with conducting polymers of all sorts (the thiophenes, etc.) as far as I know. Anyone know the current status of this?

Re:Neat!

[eheldreth]

Xerox PARC has had that tech for years now(since like 2002 or 2003) and a company named T-Ink is working with major company's producing everything from fisher price play sets to McDonald's place mats and even inflatable radios.' Click on the partners tab: T-Ink [t-ink.com]

Invented by a girl...

[Fjan11]

Insert snide male chauvinist remarks here. For extra points mention plastic and conductivity.
By the way, she's not bad looking at all, picture (and phone number!) here: http://www.tudelft.nl/live/pagina.jsp?id=40a4cfdf- 683e-4db7-9675-c5c57399329c&la [tudelft.nl]

Re:Bad news, good news

[maxume]

Aren't plastics a subset of polymers?

Some perspective on conductive polymers

[gt384u]

So I get the sensation that just like everywhere else on Slashdot, a lot of people are out of their depth when it comes to this topic. For some background, might I suggest reading about the work of the three men who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 for their work in conductive polymers [nobelprize.org]. These materials are incredible in a myriad of ways, but require a nontrivial understanding of materials to really get it.

Re:Computer of the future is near

[peragrin]

You do realize mercedes and BMW are already testing that tech. http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/print/3043 [ieee.org]

new Mercedes have a short range radar built into the cruise control. So if you come up behind a car moving slower than yourself it taps the brakes to slow you down to the speed of a car in front of you. it's not perfect if the vechicle is moving to slow or not moving you will sill hit it, but it does work say comingup on someone doing 50 while your doing 70.

In the 1970's Mercedes where one of the first companies shipping air bags standard. now they are shipping smarter cruise controls.

Those sci-fi ideas are slowly becoming reality.

Re:let me know when copper is an insulator.

[theshowmecanuck]

While it's used to make semi-conductors, silicon on its own can't conduct at normal (human) working temperatures. Due to its negative temperature coefficient of resistance it will be able to effectively conduct at temperatures over roughly 1200C, but not at room temperature. You need to highly purify and dope the silicon in order to get it to produce semi-conductors that function at 'normal' working temperatures (which I don't think include 4 digit temperatures ;-) ). So maybe depending on what they do to the plastic, it could have the same properties as doped silicon.