Origins and Early History of Conjugated Organic Polymers

Conjugated organic polymers first drew significant interest in the late 1970s when metallic-looking plastic films of polyacetylene were shown to exhibit conductivities in the metallic regime after treatment with various oxidizing agents. These results formed the basis for awarding Alan MacDiarmid, Alan Heeger, and Hideki Shirakawa the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the "e;for the discovery and ...