POLYANILINE - A HISTORICAL SURVEY

This article describes some selected studies carried out on polyaniline and contains well over 200 references dealing with chemical, electrochemical and gas-phase preparations, polymerization mechanisms, physical, chemical and electrochemical properties, redox mechanisms, theoretical studies and applications. The aim of this report is simply to provide a survey of some of the literature available on this conducting organic polymer and not to enter into critical discussion of the possible conclusions that can be drawn from the myriad of scientific investigations carried out on this material. Although much emphasis has been given to the early work (pre-1986), some of the more recent investigations have been cited. In view of the fact that almost 500 publications and patents have been recorded since January 1986, a comprehensive review of the more recent work is not included but is currently in preparation. For a survey of the most recent work on polyaniline the reader is referred to the Proceedings of the 1988 International Conference on Synthetic Metals (Synth. Met., 28 (1989)). © 1990.