Polypyrrole nanoionic composites for solid state electronics

In this report, a conjugated semiconducting polymer com posite was designed to have a mobile charge carrier density that can be controlled through an electric field. The polypyrrole composite in the form of (PPy 0 (DBS - Li + )) was electrochemically grown between two gold electrodes to form a junction. Application of an electric field across the junction should result in the drift of mobile Li + cations that are replaced by injected holes to maintain charge balance with immobile (DBS ) anions. The holes in turn should create regions with higher conductivity and have the overall effect of increasing the current flowing through the junction. The current conduction is bulk limited rather than the electrode limited and space charge limited current (SCLC) is dominant at high potentials. The system displays field and time dependent conductance corresponding to the charge carriers’ reconfiguration that has been used to implement a memory in a crossbar configuration that promises better scaling in nanometer-scale electronics.