Electronic Properties of Conjugated Polymers

• Published in: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical and physical sciences 1985-05, Vol.314 (1528), p.37-49
• Main Authors: R. H.Friend, Bott, D. C., Bradley, D. D. C., Chai, C. K., Feast, W. J., Foot, P. J. S., Giles, J. R. M., Horton, M. E., Pereira, C. M., Townsend, P. D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Conductivity; Doping; Electrical, magnetic and optical properties; Electromagnetic absorption; Electrons; Exact sciences and technology; Materials; Organic Polymeric Conductors; Organic polymers; Physicochemistry of polymers; Polarons; Polyacetylenes; Polymers; Properties and characterization; Solitons; Visible spectrum
• ISSN: 1364-503X; 0080-4614; 1471-2962; 2054-0272
• DOI: 10.1098/rsta.1985.0006

The nature of the proposed defect states in conjugated polymers (solitons and polarons in polyacetylene, polarons and bipolarons in other materials) is expected to be strongly dependent on the morphology and chain conjugation length of the polymer. Polyacetylene prepared by the Durham 'precursor' route has a lower conjugation length than that prepared by the Shirakawa route, and it is expected that polarons or bipolarons rather than solitons should be the defect state introduced during chemical doping. We discuss here a wide range of physical measurements made on Durham polyacetylene. We present data for two other, processible, polymers. Poly(phenylenesulphide) shows strong optical absorption features below the band gap when reversibly doped with AsF$_{6}$. Poly(diphenylenediphenylvinylene) shows similar behavior and evidence for photogeneration and chemical generation of polaron-like states in this material is presented.