Organic polymer electrolytes attracted a great deal of attention and research in the field of energy conversion and energy storage due to their benefits such as appreciable ionic conductivity and transference number, improved mechanical strength, thermal stability, and better interaction with the electrodes. In this study, a polymer electrolyte was synthesized from poly­(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) by electrospinning technique followed by soaking in a series of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) to enhance the electrical conductivity of the product. The result was a very thin, nonwoven membrane. The produced membranes showed appreciable improvement in electrical conductivity from 2.78 × 10–6 to 2.27 × 10–2 S/cm after soaking in DES2. The observed improvement in electrical properties opens the possibility for the PVA membranes to find their applications in batteries, storage cells, flexible thermoelectric devices, sensors, and solar cells.

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Using the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with ReaxFF potential, two different types of PFPE lubricants (Ztetraol and ZTMD) are prepared on a-C film, and SiO2 particles are adsorbed onto the lubricants at room temperature. From the simulation results, it is observed that the adsorbed SiO2 particles increase the stiffness of PFPE lubricants leading to less airshear displacement. Since Ztetraol has higher mobility with lower viscosity than ZTMD, the adsorbed SiO2 particles penetrate deeper into the Ztetraol lubricants. Accordingly, the effect of SiO2 on the airshear displacement is more obvious to Ztetraol than ZTMD. In addition, the adsorbed SiO2 particles increase the friction force and the amount of lubricant pick-up during the sliding contact with a nanosized a-C tip.

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Abstract In this work, the posttreatment of an organic polymer is performed using an inorganic acid, nitric acid (HNO3). We picked poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) as the base material and improved its electrical conductivity by acid treatment with different concentrations of HNO3. The acid treatment was able to achieve the optimum electrical conductivity of 197 S/cm, which is 115.5 times higher than the base material when treated with an aqueous solution containing 65% of HNO3. Moreover, the films showed higher transparency in the visible range while conducting Fourier transform infrared analysis. In addition, the treated films showed improved stability against outdoor operating conditions in terms of sheet resistance compared with untreated PEDOT:PSS films. We tried to develop a hypothesis to describe the reason behind the electrical conductivity enhancement by studying the thicknesses of all the samples at different acid concentration levels. The results from atomic force microscopy, the Hall effect, and the trend of film thickness suggest that the conformational change, the removal of excess PSS from the polymer, and the increase in carrier concentration are the reasons behind the improvement in electrical conductivity.