Approaches to produce defined electrically conducting polymer structures in 2D

Crowther, Sam and Hardy, John and Robinson, Benjamin (2027) Approaches to produce defined electrically conducting polymer structures in 2D. Masters thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

Electroceutical therapeutic devices which act as nerve interfaces have the potential to provide non-/minimally invasive treatments for a range of medical conditions. Examples of clinically translated devices employing electronics include cardiac pacemakers, electrodes for deep brain stimulation, bionic eyes and ears, and implantable pumps or controlled drug delivery. The success of such implanted materials/devices requires biocompatibility (i.e., no/minimal inflammatory response), with the ability to interact with external technology through transistors and circuits. This thesis builds upon investigations of printing 3D structures via direct laser writing of conductive polymers, to enable research on conductive biomaterials for various applications. The interdisciplinary project employs approaches involving chemistry, engineering and physics, to facilitate the production and characterisation of conducting polymer-based structures which can be envisioned to having potential for various applications in the long term. This project has shown a number of potential different approaches to form 2D structures as a result of polymerisation techniques. The primary constraints to stable structure formation can be identified as the physical strength of thin film polymer substrates, associated with uniform distribution of a homogenous resist where absorption of initiator is required for subsequent polymerisation, and the effective wavelength for the photoinitiator associated to photopolymerisation techniques. The direct polymerisation techniques of solution-phase and electropolymerisation contrast with the indirect photopolymerisation technique in terms of the potential for nano scale feature for bio-electronics from photolithography methods.