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Materials

Truly metallic conducting polymers

May 8, 2006 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 84, Issue 19

A new polyaniline synthesis allows thin films of the material to be prepared with minimal structural defects, leading to metallike properties that haven't been achieved before in electrically conducting organic polymers (Nature 2006, 441, 65). Mislinked monomer units and other defects interfere with polymer chain stacking and disrupt conduction bands in polyaniline, thereby preventing the polymers from fully functioning as metal equivalents in electronic devices. A team led by South Koreans Kwanghee Lee of Pusan National University and Suck-Hyun Lee of Ajou University solved this issue by devising a biphasic polymer synthesis in which the aniline hydrochloride monomer acts as a surfactant. The organic phase serves to diffuse away water-insoluble aniline oligomers and grown polymer chains so that the monomer radicals can meet the active polymer chain ends at the organic-aqueous interfaces to propagate the polymer with high structural integrity. Polyaniline prepared by this method exhibits a decrease in electrical resistance upon a decrease in temperature to 5 K, which is characteristic of metals.

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