A new type of hydrogel could make for high-performance energy-storage electrodes and biosensors. So say researchers at Stanford University in the US who have used the conducting polymer polyaniline (PAni) to develop a porous nanostructured material that they say has excellent electronic and electrochemical properties.
The PAni hydrogel
"Our material combines the advantages of hydrogels (which have a large surface area) and organic conductors, with their high electronic conductivity and good electrochemical properties," team members Lijia Pan and Guihua Yu explain. "It could thus be used in high-performance electrochemical devices such as supercapacitors and ultrasensitive biosensors, like those used to detect glucose, for example."
Hydrogels are 3D polymer networks that can hold a large amount of water and have a structure similar to that of biological tissue. Most hydrogels are based on non-conducting polymer matrices, however, which limits their applications in electronics. The researchers, led by Zhenan Bao and Yi Cui, have now used phytic acid, which is a good ionic conductor, to dope and crosslink the PAni in an effort to overcome this shortcoming.
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Lees verder: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2012/jun/26/hydrogel-electronics-makes-its-debut
Bron: Physicsworld, IOP
