Anisotropic Electrical Conductivity in Close-Packed Two-Dimensional Polyaramids
10 affiliations
- 1Department of Chemical Engineering
- 2Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 3Department of Integrated Display Engineering
- 4Yonsei University
- 5School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- 6Department of Materials Science and Engineering
- 7Characterization.nano
- 8Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
- 9University of Colorado Boulder
- 10Department of Chemistry
Abstract
Polyaramids such as Kevlar ® are renowned for their high mechanical strength and chemical resistance; however, their non-conjugated backbones render them electrically insulating. Orbital alignment can allow close-packed stacked molecules to exhibit long range conduction, opening the possibility that insulating nanomaterials may form conducting arrangements. Herein, we report two-dimensional (2D) polyaramids with tailored end-groups that promote tighter molecular packing as their size decreases. Terminal groups with the size of a single methyl result in aligned films that exhibit highly anisotropic electrical conductivity up to 1.39 × 10 –4 S m –1 , comparable to or exceeding many undoped conjugated polymers. Charge transport occurs orthogonally across aligned, stacked polymer platelets while the in-plane direction remains insulating. The anisotropy reverses the behavior typically observed in-plane conduction of stacked 2D nanomaterials. The resulting films are photoconductive under 405 nm illumination with an external quantum efficiency of 0.62%. The mechanical and chemical stability of such conductive 2D polyaramids enables the first single-component, acid-stable polymer electrodes based on non-conjugated frameworks, capable of operating in harsh environments while exhibiting perfectly invariant cyclic capacitance for over 10,000 cycles at pH 2. The stability is enabled in part by the impermeability of such films to moisture and oxygen, underscored by their ability to suppress perovskite degradation with a 150 nm coating. Together, these findings underscore a newly realized mode of electrical conduction in close-packed 2D polymers, enabling ultra-lightweight and chemically stable electrodes for energy storage and sustainability applications.
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BibTeX
@misc{wei2026anisotropic,
title = {{Anisotropic Electrical Conductivity in Close-Packed Two-Dimensional Polyaramids}},
author = {Zitang Wei and Byung Ha Kang and Changhwan Oh and Amanda Cheng and Yile Jiang and Yong Zhang and Cody L. Ritt and Shahab Amirabadi and Xiaoyi Wang and Sungyun Yang and Sanjay S. Garimella and Hohyung Kang and Heather J. Kulik and Michael S. Strano},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15011010/v1},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15011010/v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Anisotropic Electrical Conductivity in Close-Packed Two-Dimensional Polyaramids
AU - Zitang Wei
AU - Byung Ha Kang
AU - Changhwan Oh
AU - Amanda Cheng
AU - Yile Jiang
AU - Yong Zhang
AU - Cody L. Ritt
AU - Shahab Amirabadi
AU - Xiaoyi Wang
AU - Sungyun Yang
AU - Sanjay S. Garimella
AU - Hohyung Kang
AU - Heather J. Kulik
AU - Michael S. Strano
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/25
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15011010/v1
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15011010/v1
AB - Polyaramids such as Kevlar ® are renowned for their high mechanical strength and chemical resistance; however, their non-conjugated backbones render them electrically insulating. Orbital alignment can allow close-packed stacked molecules to exhibit long range conduction, opening the possibility that insulating nanomaterials may form conducting arrangements. Herein, we report two-dimensional (2D) polyaramids with tailored end-groups that promote tighter molecular packing as their size decreases. Terminal groups with the size of a single methyl result in aligned films that exhibit highly anisotropic electrical conductivity up to 1.39 × 10 –4 S m –1 , comparable to or exceeding many undoped conjugated polymers. Charge transport occurs orthogonally across aligned, stacked polymer platelets while the in-plane direction remains insulating. The anisotropy reverses the behavior typically observed in-plane conduction of stacked 2D nanomaterials. The resulting films are photoconductive under 405 nm illumination with an external quantum efficiency of 0.62%. The mechanical and chemical stability of such conductive 2D polyaramids enables the first single-component, acid-stable polymer electrodes based on non-conjugated frameworks, capable of operating in harsh environments while exhibiting perfectly invariant cyclic capacitance for over 10,000 cycles at pH 2. The stability is enabled in part by the impermeability of such films to moisture and oxygen, underscored by their ability to suppress perovskite degradation with a 150 nm coating. Together, these findings underscore a newly realized mode of electrical conduction in close-packed 2D polymers, enabling ultra-lightweight and chemically stable electrodes for energy storage and sustainability applications.
ER -