Polymer-based electronic devices are limited by slow transport and recombination of newly separated charges. Built-in electric fields, which arise from compositional gradients, are known to improve charge separation, directional charge transport, and to reduce recombination. Yet, the optimization of these fields through the rational design of polymeric materials is not prevalent. Indeed, polymers are disordered and generate nonuniform electric fields that are hard to measure, and therefore, hard to optimize. Here, we review work focusing on the intentional optimization of electric fields in polymeric systems with applications to catalysis, energy conversion, and storage. This includes chemical tuning of constituent monomers, linkers, morphology, etc. that result in stronger molecular dipoles, polarizability or crystallinity. We also review techniques to characterize electric fields in polymers and emerging processing strategies based on electric fields. These studies demonstrate the benefits of optimizing electric fields in polymers. However, rational design is often restricted to the molecular scale, deriving new pendants on, or linkers between, monomers. This does not always translate in strong electric fields at the polymer level, because they strongly depend on the monomer orientation. A better control of the morphology and monomer-to-polymer scaling relationship is therefore crucial to enhance electric fields in polymeric materials.

中文翻译：

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聚合物系统中的电场


基于聚合物的电子设备受到缓慢传输和新分离电荷重新复合的限制。众所周知，由成分梯度产生的内置电场可以改善电荷分离、定向电荷传输并减少复合。然而，通过聚合物材料的合理设计来优化这些领域并不普遍。事实上，聚合物是无序的，会产生难以测量的不均匀电场，因此难以优化。在这里，我们回顾了专注于聚合物系统中电场的有意优化及其在催化、能量转换和存储中的应用的工作。这包括对组成单体、接头、形态等进行化学调整，从而产生更强的分子偶极子、极化率或结晶度。我们还回顾了表征聚合物电场的技术以及基于电场的新兴加工策略。这些研究证明了优化聚合物电场的好处。然而，理性设计通常局限于分子尺度，在单体上衍生新的垂状或单体之间的连接剂。这并不总是转化为聚合物水平的强电场，因为它们在很大程度上取决于单体取向。因此，更好地控制形态和单体-聚合物的缩放关系对于增强聚合物材料的电场至关重要。