Researchers must find a sustainable way of providing the power our modern lifestyles demand.

Building better batteries

THE recent fabrication of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) from conjugated polymers1,2demonstrates the technological potential of this class of electronic materials. A variety of colours are possible, because the wavelength of luminescence emission can be chemically tuned during synthesis1–4. In addition, the mechanical properties of polymers suggest that light-emitting structures can be made that are more flexible than their inorganic counterparts, provided appropriate materials can be found for the substrate and electrodes. Here we report the fabrication of a fully flexible LED using poly(ethylene terephthalate) as the substrate, soluble poly-aniline as the hole-injecting electrode, a substituted poly(1,4-phenylene-vinylene) as the electroluminescent layer and calcium as the electron-injecting top contract. The structure is mechanically robust and may be sharply bent without failure. The LED is easily visible under room lighting and has an external quantum efficiency of about 1%. With a turn-on voltage for light emission of 2–3 V, the 'plastic' LED demonstrates that this unique combination of optical, electrical and mechanical properties can be used to make novel structures that are compatible with conventional devices.

Flexible light-emitting diodes made from soluble conducting polymers

‘Polyaniline’: Protonic acid doping of the emeraldine form to the metallic regime

Progress in preparation, processing and applications of polyaniline

When asked to explain the importance of the discovery of conducting polymers, I offer two basic answers: first they did not (could not?) exist, and second, that they offer a unique combination of properties not available from any other known materials. The first expresses an intellectual challenge; the second expresses a promise for utility in a wide variety of applications.

Semiconducting and Metallic Polymers: The Fourth Generation of Polymeric Materials (Nobel Lecture).

“Polyaniline” has been synthesized in various forms both chemically and electrochemically in aqueous media. The qulnoid-benzenoid-diimine form, an insulator, is doped by dilute aqueous protonic acids to the metallic regime ([sgrave] = 5 ohm−1cm−1; compressed pellet) to give the corresponding iminium salt. This represents a new type of p-doping phenomenon in a conducting polymer. Both these forms are stable in the presence of air and/or water. The doping process is reversed by treatment with aqueous alkali. Cyclic voltammetry studies in an aqueous electrolyte show excellent reversibility between selected reduced and oxidized forms of polyaniline.

“Polyaniline”: Interconversion of Metallic and Insulating Forms

We present optical-absorption data together with band-structure calculations for the polaron lattice and bipolaron lattice for the highly conducting form of polyaniline, proton-doped polyemeraldine. We show that the polaron-lattice band structure fully accounts for the observed optical transitions. These results are in marked contrast with the electronic structure of other doped conducting polymers, in that only one single broad polaron band appears deep in the gap together with a very narrow band nearly degenerate with the conduction-band edge.

W. S. Huang

Papers

“Polyaniline”: Interconversion of Metallic and Insulating Forms

Polaron lattice in highly conducting polyaniline: Theoretical and optical studies.

Insulator-to-metal transition in polyaniline

Polyaniline: Electrochemistry and application to rechargeable batteries

A two-dimensional-surface ‘state diagram’ for polyaniline