Repurposing Poly(3-hexylthiophene) as a Conductivity-Reducing Additive for Polyethylene-Based High-Voltage Insulation

Amir Masoud Pourrahimi; Sarath Kumara; Fabrizio Palmieri; Liyang Yu; Anja Lund; Thomas Hammarström; Per-Ola Hagstrand; Ivan G Scheblykin; Davide Fabiani; Xiangdong Xu; Christian Müller

doi:10.1002/adma.202100714

Repurposing Poly(3-hexylthiophene) as a Conductivity-Reducing Additive for Polyethylene-Based High-Voltage Insulation

Adv Mater. 2021 Jul;33(27):e2100714. doi: 10.1002/adma.202100714. Epub 2021 May 28.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, 41296, Sweden.
² Department of Electrical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, 41296, Sweden.
³ Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering, University of Bologna, Bologna, 40136, Italy.
⁴ Innovation & Technology, Borealis AB, Stenungsund, 44486, Sweden.
⁵ Chemical Physics and NanoLund, Lund University, PO Box 118, Lund, 22100, Sweden.

PMID: 34048610
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202100714

Abstract

Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) is found to be a highly effective conductivity-reducing additive for low-density polyethylene (LDPE), which introduces a new application area to the field of conjugated polymers. Additives that reduce the direct-current (DC) electrical conductivity of an insulation material at high electric fields have gained a lot of research interest because they may facilitate the design of more efficient high-voltage direct-current power cables. An ultralow concentration of regio-regular P3HT of 0.0005 wt% is found to reduce the DC conductivity of LDPE threefold, which translates into the highest efficiency reported for any conductivity-reducing additive to date. The here-established approach, i.e., the use of a conjugated polymer as a mere additive, may boost demand in absolute terms beyond the quantities needed for thin-film electronics, which would turn organic semiconductors from a niche product into commodity chemicals.

Keywords: conjugated polymers; electrical conductivity reducing additives; high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) insulation; low-density polyethylene (LDPE); poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT).