September 21, 2026
An interdisciplinary study on conductive polymers by Mizzou researchers is featured on the inside back cover of the September issue of Advanced Materials, one of the top journals in materials science.
To be featured so prominently by this journal is an honor, said Matthias Young, an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and primary investigator on the study.
The journal selected the Mizzou research for an inside back cover feature, accompanied by original artwork designed by Mizzou Engineering graphic designer Josh Oppenlander.
The research team included students from the departments of Chemistry and Physics, Physics and Engineering faculty and a researcher from the MU Materials Science and Engineering Institute.
In their study, the team focused on the molecular building blocks used to create conductive polymers and the order in which they are assembled.
Conductive polymers are plastics whose molecular structure allows electricity to move through them. They combine some of the flexibility, light weight and easy processing of plastics with some of the electrical properties of metals or semiconductors.
The researchers developed a new model that explains how the sequence of molecules within a polymer affects how easily electricity can travel within the material and accurately predicts conductivity across a wide range of polymer compositions.
But their key finding was that electrical charges could move efficiently between conductive segments of the polymer only when those segments were separated by about 1.5 nanometers or less, a distance roughly the width of a DNA molecule.
“This discovery provides a new design rule for materials engineers,” Young said. “It could advance development of better flexible electronics, improved semiconductor manufacturing, more efficient energy technologies and faster materials discovery.”
The study, “The Impact of Copolymer Molecular Sequence on Electronic Transport,” was published in Advanced Materials. Co-authors are Mahya Mehregan, Jack Shultz, Andreas Werbrouck, Dilan Gamachchige, Indeewari M. Karunarathne, Matt Maschmann, Andrew C. Meng and Matthias Young. It was funded by the National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research (DMR) Polymers Program through Award Number 2235161.
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