Pyrolysis routes to conducting polymers

5 Conducting polymers having hetero-atoms in their backbone and/or substituents 

This curious material has a high electrical conductivity and a high work function for electrons, and can consequently be coated on to electrodes in a reproducible way. It may therefore find use as an electrode for voltammetry or amperometry, and other thin film device applications such as light-emitting diodes (13). 

Another heterochain polymer which has received a lot of attention recently is polyaniline. This material is produced by chemical or electrochemical oxidation of aniline, and it seems likely that it is very similar to, if not always identical with, aniline black , an ill-defined material of some antiquity. The propensity of hetero-substituted aromatics to undergo coupling via intermediate radical cations is well established and, since a monosubstituted benzene is effectively a trifunctional monomer in this context, it seems likely that this product is a network or highly branched material, which would account for its unattractive handling properties. 

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