University of Michigan researchers discover potential for electrical conductivity in silicone
While studying different cross-linking structures in silicone, the research team stumbled upon the potential for electrical conductivity in a copolymer, which is a polymer chain containing two different types of repeating units—cage-structured and then linear silicones in this case.
The possibility for conductivity arises from the way electrons can move across Si—O—Si bonds with overlapping orbitals. Semiconductors have two main states: the ground state, which doesn’t conduct electricity, and a conducting state, which does. The conducting state, also known as an excited state, occurs when some electrons jump up to the next electron orbital, which is connected across the material like a metal.
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