17,840 research outputs found
Designing Conducting Polymers Using Bioinspired Ant Algorithms
Ant algorithms are inspired in real ants and the main idea is to create
virtual ants that travel into the space of possible solution depositing virtual
pheromone proportional to how good a specific solution is. This creates a
autocatalytic (positive feedback) process that can be used to generate
automatic solutions to very difficult problems. In the present work we show
that these algorithms can be used coupled to tight-binding hamiltonians to
design conducting polymers with pre-specified properties. The methodology is
completely general and can be used for a large number of optimization problems
in materials science
Bridge Hopping on Conducting Polymers in Solution
Configurational fluctuations of conducting polymers in solution can bring
into proximity monomers which are distant from each other along the backbone.
Electrons can hop between these monomers across the "bridges" so formed. We
show how this can lead to (i) a collapse transition for metallic polymers, and
(ii) to the observed dramatic efficiency of acceptor molecules for quenching
fluorescence in semiconducting polymers.Comment: RevTeX 12 pages + 2 Postscript figure
Corrosion-protective coatings from electrically conducting polymers
In a joint effort between NASA Kennedy and LANL, electrically conductive polymer coatings were developed as corrosion protective coatings for metal surfaces. At NASA Kennedy, the launch environment consist of marine, severe solar, and intermittent high acid and/or elevated temperature conditions. Electrically conductive polymer coatings were developed which impart corrosion resistance to mild steel when exposed to saline and acidic environments. Such coatings also seem to promote corrosion resistance in areas of mild steel where scratches exist in the protective coating. Such coatings appear promising for many commercial applications
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