Ab initio study of the electronic and structural properties of the crystalline polyethyleneimine polymer

Polyethyleneimine is a very interesting polymer, not only for its extensive use in biological applications, but also for its crystal structure as a double-stranded helix in the anhydrous state. In order to elucidate the electronic bulk properties of the crystalline (or linear) polyethyleneimine built from ethylenediamine molecules in anhydrous conditions, we performed ab initio density functional theory calculations on water-free molecular crystal structures. The resulting polymer is a semiconductor with a small band gap: Eg = 0.40 eV.