Synthesis of functional polymers such as conjugated polymers produces a lot of waste in the form of solvent. In fact, the mass of solvent is far greater than the mass of polymer synthesised. There are emerging bulk electronic device applications where the mass of polymer is the majority of the mass of the device. In these cases, the sustainability of the polymer synthesis is the main contributor to the embodied energy and CO2 footprint of the device or system.

Conjugated thermoelectric polymers are a case in point. It is challenging to maintain high molecular weight in mechanochemical synthesis, but for conjugated polymers, the molecular weight from conventional synthesis is low anyway due to limited polymer solubility. Furthermore, when making conducting polymers by oxidative polymerisation, the catalysts for polymerisation are the same as the dopants used to make the polymers conducting, meaning no need for post-synthetic purification.

This project will explore mechanochemical synthesis of conducting polymers such as PEDOT:tosylate, BBL and PQT12. The aim will be to reduce the cost, energy pay-back time and CO2 footprint of conducting polymers, and will develop know-how that could be applied across a wide range of polymer systems.