STRUCTURE, ORDER, AND THE METALLIC STATE IN POLYANILINE AND ITS DERIVATIVES

The origin of high conductivity in various conducting polymers remains of considerable interest. The polyaniline family of polymers provides a means of sensitively testing the effects of crystal structure, coherence, order and chain separation on the conductivity. Extensive comparative study of emeraldine hydrochloride, oriented emeraldine hydrochloride, poly(orthotoluidine) hydrochloride, and sulfonated polyaniline demonstrate the importance of interchain diffusion of charge in achieving high conductivities. These results are in accord with magnetotransport studies of polyacetylene which similarly demonstrate the importance of three-dimensional charge diffusion.