Functional materials from polymer derivatives: Properties and characterization

This chapter summarizes properties and characterization of a broad range of functional polymeric materials. The attention is drawn toward hybrid polymers for electroactive applications. The first section describes photoactive polymer materials for optoelectronics with a focus on the properties and characterization techniques. The second section examines the physicochemical properties of polymeric materials for storing and transducing energy as well as techniques to characterizing them. More specifically, functional materials that have found applications in supercapacitors and carbon nanotube-based hybrid actuators will be discussed. Each section comprises an overview of material characterization techniques with chosen literature examples preceded by an introduction of the necessary general background.