Applications of conductive polymers 5

Mechanism of polymer conductivity – role of doping 6

Molecular electron-transfer theory 11

Electroluminescent polymers – second-generation conductive polymers 13

From silicon physics to molecular electronics 14

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2000 to three

scientists who have revolutionised the development of electrically conductive polymers.

Professor Alan J. Heeger at the University of California at Santa Barbara, USA

Professor Alan G. MacDiarmid at the University of Pennsylvania, USA and

Professor Hideki Shirakawa at the University of Tsukuba, Japan

are rewarded “for the discovery and development of electrically conductive polymers”.

The choice is motivated by the important scientific position that the field has achieved and the consequences in

terms of practical applications and of inte

make the polymer material conductive. In addition – and this is what the dopant does – charge carriers in the

an atom of an inert gas, the valence orbitals are not filled. Thus the band of N molecular orbitals will not be

polyacetylene films 109 times more conductive than they were originally.1 Treatment with halogen was called

double. Hückel’s theory and other simple theories predict that ? electrons are delocalised over the entire chain

and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital has the energy:

physics a precondition for a perfect crystal is long-range order as well. Regular structure is generally a ‘must’

magnetic dipole moment due to electron spin).

Some topics in this essay:
Prize Chemistry, Energy Reaction, RI2 Joule, MacDiarmid Heeger, LEDs Cross, Sm�1 Mechanism, Polyethylenedioxythiophene PEDOT, C10H8+ C14H10, HOMO LUMO, Heeger McDiarmid, conductive polymers, band gap, molecular orbitals, electron transfer, molecular orbital, double bonds, polymers �, nobel prize chemistry, prize chemistry, nobel prize, conjugated polymers, conjugated double bonds, conductive polymers �, electron transfer reaction, applications conductive polymers,