Black Gold - Conducting Polymers

Conducting polymers had a rather inauspicious start in electrochemistry: They were first called  "The Black Crap that Fouled My Electrode"  by researchers attempting to study the electrochemistry of aniline compounds. This year, conducting polymers (such as the polyaniline the early electrochemists produced) earned three scientists some  gold  - a Nobel Prize in Chemistry!

To Electrochemistry and Beyond!

It is enlightening to see the bio-s of  this winning trio: One is a chemist (MacDiarmid, U of Penn), one is a physicist (Heeger, UCSB), and one is a materials scientist (Shirakawa, U of Tsukuba, Japan). The study of conducting polymers cuts across traditional discipline boundaries.

Conducting polymers hold the promise of plastic wires, all-plastic light-weight batteries (check your cell phone!!),  cheap and colorful light emitting diodes, and large, bright displays for signs or TV screens.