Practical Use of Polymer Brushes in Sustainable Energy Applications: Interfacial Nanoarchitectonics for High-Efficiency Devices

CORTEZ, M. LORENA; MARMISOLLÉ, WALDEMAR A.; GIUSSI, JUAN M.; AZZARONI, OMAR

CHEMICAL SOCIETY REVIEWS (PRINT)

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY

Lugar: CAMBRIDGE; Año: 2019 vol. 48 p. 814 - 849

0306-0012

The development of clean and high-performance energy storage and conversion devices is compelling increasing recognition as a major challenge for contemporary societies. The performance and lifetime of such devices are critically dependent on nanoscale interfacial phenomena. Consequently, nanoarchitectonic strategies leading to improved hybrid materials are becoming increasingly important in this field. Particularly, polymer brushes offer a broad variety of resources to gain molecular, nano- and mesoscale control over the synergistic combination and organization of functional building blocks and to overcome many of the device limitations arising from photophysical or electrochemical processes. Seen in this light, polymer brushes provide a new perspective from which to consider the development of hybrid materials and devices with improved functionalities. The aim of this review is therefore to focus on what polymer brushes-based solutions can improve the performance and efficiency of fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries, solar fuel production, organic radical batteries, supercapacitors, photoelectrochemical cells and photovoltaic devices.