Synthesis and material and electronic properties of conjugated polymers

Conjugated polymers such as polyacetylene are semiconductors, and can be chemically doped to give very high values of conductivity (up to 150 000 S cm^–1). The semiconducting properties are due to delocalization of the electron system formed along the polymer chain, and this general class of materials shows many desirable semiconductor properties for electrical and optical applications. There are considerable challenges to find synthetic routes to allow processing of the polymer to the forms required for applications, and many of the recent important advances in the field are due to improvements in this area.