Band gap engineering in polymers through chemical doping and applied mechanical strain

We report simulations based on density functional theory and many-body perturbation theory exploring the band gaps of common crystalline polymers including polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene. Our reported band gaps of 8.6 eV for single-chain polyethylene and 9.1 eV for bulk crystalline polyethylene are in excellent agreement with experiment. The effects of chemical doping along the polymer backbone and side-groups are explored, and the use mechanical strain as a means to modify the band gaps of these polymers over a range of several eV while leaving the dielectric constant unchanged is discussed. This work highlights some of the opportunities available to engineer the electronic properties of polymers with wide-reaching implications for polymeric dielectric materials used for capacitive energy storage.