Chemical Sciences - Adaptive Sensors Group
chemical sciences - adaptive sensors group
project page
Name:
Ciarán Smyth
Contact details
Adaptive Information Cluster
National Centre for Sensor Research
Dublin City University
Lab Phone: 01 7005670
Qualifications
B.Sc. Applied Physics (2004)Project Summary
My project is associated with looking at inherently conducting polymers (ICPs), and in particular to their use in sensing mechanisms and in fluid flow manifolds. This involves the analysis and manipulation of the electrochemistry required for growth of ICP films and of the chemical and electromechanical response of such films once synthesised.
ICPs are often referred to as synthetic metals, due to their conducting and semiconducting capability. Doped polymers have been synthesised operating in the metallic conducting range of ~1-104 S/cm. In the case of polypyrrole this capacity for electron transfer has also been useful in terms of the manipulation of the physical aspects of the material. Electrochemical oxidation of the polymer film in solution attracts anions from the electrolyte into the film, causing a volume swelling effect in the film. It is hoped to use this characteristic in sensing devices and in microfluidic systems. A second feature of polypyrrole under electrochemical stimulation is that of the surface charging of thin films. Control of the charge on the surface, again protagonated by redox effects, can be used in a technique known as 'electrowetting' where control of the charge at the interface between polymer and fluid facilitates liquid actuation.