Conducting Polymers

Abstract

Conducting polymers include the oxidized conjugated polymers doped with counter anions and the intrinsic semiconducting conjugated polymers. The distinguished advantages of conducting polymers are that they possess not only electronic and optical properties of metal and inorganic semiconductors, but also flexible mechanics and processability of polymers. Since the discovery of conducting polymers in 1977, the research on conducting polymers has achieved great progress and has been expanded broadly into different fields. The intrinsic conjugated polymers have attracted great attention in the past 25 years for applications as optoelectronic materials in polymer light-emitting diodes, polymer solar cells, etc. The doped conducting polymers have also drawn much research interests for their novel scientific phenomena and applications as transparent conducting electrodes, electrode buffer layers, modified electrode, electrochemical supercapacitors, etc. In this chapter, I will start from introducing the discovery and development history of conducting polymer, and then I will mainly focus on the molecular structures, basic physicochemical properties, and preparation methods of the conducting polymers.