Semiconductive polymers

About the time that synthetic metals reached their apogee, twenty years ago, research began on semiconducting polymers. Today, at the turn of the century, such polymers have taken the center of the stage, and indeed promise some of the most important applications of polymers. 

Polymers, large molecules made up of smaller molecules in a repeating pattern, are used for many electrochromic materials. Conjugating polymers, which have alternating single and double bonds, are particularly suitable. Figure B shows the electrochemical oxidation of the conjugated polymer, polythiophene. Oxidation (in which electrons are removed) produces a semiconductive polymer. The neutral (unoxidized) polythiophene is red in color, whereas the semiconductive polythiophene (oxidized) is blue. In their neutral... 

Despite the scientific progress and the demonstration of novel device concepts, there was considerable skepticism that semiconducting polymers would ever reach the levels of purity required for long-lifetime commercial devices. In the context of the last 50 years of semiconductor physics, conjugated polymers were often... 

Ultrafast photoinduced electron transfer in semiconducting polymers mixed with controlled amounts of acceptors this phenomenon has opened the way to a variety of applications including high-sensitivity plastic photodiodes, and efficient plastic solar cells ... 

Semiconducting polymers as materials for solid-state lasers. 

F. Hide, M.A. Dtaz-Gatcia, B.J. Schwarts, M.R. Andersson, P Qibing, A.J. Hecger, Semiconducting polymers a new class of solid-state laser materials. Science 1996, 273, 1833. 

H.J. Brouwer, Semiconducting Polymers for Light-emitting Diodes and Losers a Structural. Photophysical and Electrical Study of PPV-type Alternating Copolymers and Oligomers, Ph.D. Thesis, Groningen, 1998. 

F. Hide, B.J. Schwartz, M. A. Diaz-Garcia, A.J. Hceger, Laser emission from solutions and films containing semiconducting polymer and titanium dioxide naiioerysials. Chem. Phys. Lett. 1996, 256, 424. 

A.J. Hceger, D. Moses, M. Sinclair, Semiconducting polymers fast response non-linear optical materials, Synth. Met., 1986. 15, 95. 

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