AbstractConducting polymers have attracted attention in many areas of materials chemistry due to their tunability and wide range of applications. We are interested in utilizing the thermo-switchable properties of precursor PPV polymers to develop capacitor dielectrics that will fail at specific temperatures due to the material irreversibly converting from an insulating to a conducting state. Here, we report the synthesis and characterization of a new halophenyl substituted PPV polymer. We show that the precursor polymer has good dielectric properties over a range of temperatures, but will fail at high temperatures due to the polymer backbone conjugating. By utilizing thermo-switchable dielectrics in capacitors, the unintentional discharge of electricity in the event of a fire or overheating could be averted, providing a fundamental safety mechanism for high-voltage electronics.
