THEORETICAL STUDY OF THE ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF BIPHENYLENE POLYMERS: PREDICTION OF NEW HIGHLY CONDUCTING POLYMER COMPLEXES.

Valence effective Hamiltonian calculations were performed on three conjugated polymers based on biphenylene. The results indicate that a linear ladder-type biphenylene polymer (compound B) could possess very promising properties: a very low ionization potential (ca. 3. 4 ev), a very small (indirect) bandgap (ca. 0. 12 ev), consequently a large electron affinity of the order of 3. 3 ev, and a highest occupied band almost as wide as that in polyacetylene. As a result, this system should form highly conducting complexes with electron donors as well as with electron acceptors (including organic acceptors such as tetracyanoethylene), and the acceptor complexes could prove quite stable in air.