Abstract

This article gives an overview of the field of electrically conducting organic polymers. The first major section describes the synthesis of the various types of conjugated conducting polymer as well as conducting polymer blends and composites. This is followed by a discussion of the redox doping required to form charge carriers, the optical properties of the polymers, and the electrical conduction properties of metallic and semiconducting polymers. A short section is devoted to the stability of different conducting polymers. The final section outlines some of the principal applications of these polymers, including electromagnetic shielding and charge dissipation, corrosion-inhibiting paints, composite materials, charge-storage batteries, actuators, chemical and biochemical sensors, gas separation membranes, electrochromism, polymer LEDs, laser diodes and photovoltaic cells, and plastic electronics.