Organic electronic conductors

The history of organic electronic conductors for half century is shortly reviewed and some recent topics on the synthesis of conducting polymers are presented. Organic conductors can be roughly divided into two categories, crystalline and polymeric materials, of which chemistry and physics have advanced markedly and a variety of examples have appeared. The crystalline materials involve superconducting low-dimensional charge-transfer salts and M3C60 (M is an alkali metal), and the polymeric conductors are mostly made of linearly pi-conjugated organic polymers. One of the recent topics given is synthesis of poly(phenylene vinylene) that is one of the most fascinating materials of its high EL ability. Other topics described are synthesis of new class of conducting polymers, pi-conjugated donor-acceptor copolymers and pi-conjugated polymers involving transition metal complexes. The history clearly indicates that the role of synthetic chemists is still important for finding a breakthrough to open a new era of organic conducting materials.