Conduction in Paraffinic Polymers

Abstract

A band scheme is developed for the linear paraffinic polymer. It is found that the valence band is 10 eV wide and that the hole effective mass is 0.1 m. Consistency with experiments on dc conductivity is invoked to decide the identity of the thermal and optical transitions which generate holes. The results are at best semiquantitative and are intended as a preliminary to more rigorous calculations. The proposed band structure is shown to be capable of explaining the thermoluminescence emission spectrum, although more data would be required for a detailed analysis. Since there is evidence that certain types of substitution may be treated as a perturbation of the paraffinic system, the band model is extended to polymers of type (—CH₂—CHR—)_n. It is concluded that the resistivity may be lowered by the substitution, but that no choice of R will yield a greater resistivity than that of the paraffinic polymer.