SYNTHESIS AND PROPERTIES OF SOME CONJUGATED, POTENTIALLY CONDUCTIVE, POLYMERS.

There appear to have been three main approaches to the use of organic polymers in the field of electrically conducting structures: the first involves their pyrolysis to produce a conducting residue (often, but not invariably, carbon); the second is to produce a composite structure from a conducting material and an insulating organic polymer; and the third requires the design and synthesis of intrinsically conducting polymers. This paper is concerned with some aspects of the chemisty of intrinsically conductive polymers: the concept of polymeric organic metals, the synthesis and properties of polyacetylene, two-step routes to polyacetylene, and other conjugated polymers.