Applications of Radical Polymers in Solid-State Devices

The properties of organic materials in bulk solids and thin films are key to their applications in modern optoelectronic systems [1]. That is, unlike most commercial batteries, other devices (e.g., field-effect transistors, light-emitting devices, and organic photovoltaic cells) often demand the application of functional materials in the solid state. As most such applications of radical polymers have only been examined in less than the last 5 years, this area of research is practically the youngest frontier of radical polymers. Nevertheless, even in this relatively short timeframe, there have been several significant discoveries of the properties of radical polymers, which are further boosting the research efforts of these classes of compounds. In fact, the journey of the community started with the idea to utilize the spin systems in radical-containing macromolecules. In the earliest of these examples, which occurred at the dawn of twenty-first century, radical-containing macromolecules (e.g., polyradicals) formed the early examples of organic polymer magnets [2].