Editorial for the Conducting Polymers for Carbon Electronics themed issue

The year 2010 is the 10th anniversary of the award of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Alan J. Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa for the discovery and development of conducting polymers. During the past 10 years, major progress in the fundamental properties and applicability of conducting polymer research, combined with the recent development of nanoscience and technology, has been accomplished. Therefore, it is perfect timing in 2010 to publish a themed issue on the topic of conducting polymers for carbon electronics covering research at the forefront on conducting polymers and their composites with fullerene, carbon nanotubes (CNT), graphene, organic single crystals, biological molecules and biopolymers.

There are twenty review articles in this themed issue contributed by worldwide leading scientists in the field. I appreciate them all for their great efforts in writing the splendid reviews. I am particularly honored to have the wonderful review article from Prof. Alan J. Heeger, the corecipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in this issue. It is most appropriate to begin this editorial with his review paper. Although each article contains many exciting topics and subjects in detail, I have classified the 20 contributed reviews as follows to give an overview to the readers.

• New conducting polymers for solar cells and light emitting devices (LEDs)

• Organic electronics and applicability

• Synthesis of new conducting polymers

• Theory of conducting polymers

• Polymer nanofibers, nanorods and nanostructures

New conducting polymers for solar cells and light emitting devices (LEDs)

The review by Prof. A. J. Heeger (DOI: 10.1039/b914956m) looks at the 3rd generation semiconducting polymers, highly ordered crystalline PDTTT and new donor–acceptor co-polymers, for bulk heterojunction solar cells, while the review by Prof. Y. Cao (DOI: 10.1039/b907991m) focuses on water/alcohol soluble conducting polymers for highly efficient light emitting devices. Prof. A. Grimsdale (DOI: 10.1039/b915995a) reviews carbazole-based polymers for organic photovoltaic devices and Prof. D. G. Ma (DOI: 10.1039/b909057f) highlights recent work on white organic light emitting diodes (WOLEDs).

Organic electronics and applicability

Prof. J. S. Brooks (DOI: 10.1039/b913417b) reviews organic “small molecule” crystalline materials in terms of structure and function, and their device applicability, while Prof. A. Pron (DOI: 10.1039/b907999h) focuses on the preparation, structure and characterization of electroactive materials for organic electronics. Prof. H. Klauk (DOI: 10.1039/b909902f) summarizes the work on organic thin-film transistors and Prof. D. B. Zhu (DOI: 10.1039/b909065g) reviews water soluble fluorescent conjugated polymers for sensitive biosensors. Prof. O. Inganäs (DOI: 10.1039/b918146f) focuses on the hybrid electronics and electrochemistry with conjugated polymers for electrochemical cell devices, and Prof. S. Roth (DOI: 10.1039/c003813j) reviews transparent conducting films made of graphene and carbon nanotube mixtures.

Synthesis of new conducting polymers

Prof. K. Akagi (DOI: 10.1039/b907990b) reviews helical polyacetylene synthesized in a chiral nematic liquid crystal field and morphology-retaining carbonization for helical graphite. Prof. K. Müllen (DOI: 10.1039/b918151m) summarizes how to manipulate the microstructures of polymers to improve the polymer transistor performance, while Prof. G. Wallace (DOI: 10.1039/b908001p) describes the preparation and properties of a new class of chiral conducting polymers for new chiral electronic applications. Prof. B. Z. Tang (DOI: 10.1039/b909064a) summarizes the alkyne–azide click reaction as a versatile polymerization technique for the synthesis of PTAs, and Prof. P. Skabara (DOI: 10.1039/b918154g) reviews the strategies for the design and construction of non-linear 2D and 3D conjugated macromolecules, termed star-shaped π-conjugated oligomers, and their applications in organic electronics and photonics.

Theory of conducting polymers

Prof. S. Brazovskii and N. Kirova (DOI: 10.1039/b917724h) review the solid state physics approach to electronic and optical properties (the physical theory of excitons) in conducting polymers and compares it with the quantum chemistry approach of oligomers, while Prof. S. Stafström (DOI: 10.1039/b909058b) describes an atomistic simulation approach to studies of dynamics of charge transport in π-conjugated molecular or polymer based materials.

Polymer nanofibers, nanorods and nanostructures

Prof. M. Iyoda (DOI: 10.1039/b909347h) reviews the studies of electroconducting nanomaterials such as nanofibers, nanorods and other nanostructures based on the supramolecular self-assembly of HBC, oligothiophenes, and TTF derivatives, while Prof. J. Joo (DOI: 10.1039/b907993a) focuses on the hybrid nanostructures of π-conjugated organic systems with nanoscale metals, which show considerable enhancement of photoluminescence efficiency due to the energy and charge transfer effect in surface plasmon resonance coupling. Finally, I, myself, (DOI: 10.1039/b913768h) review the magneto resistance of polyacetylene nanofibers along with a summary of the magneto resistance of film type conducting polymers. In particular, the vanishing magneto resistance (VMR) in high electric field of polyacetylene nanofibers is discussed.

 

I must emphasize that the above classification with a brief summary of each review article is over simplified for your initial look at the issue. I believe that you will greatly enjoy all the review articles in which you will find the updated progress in conducting polymer research over the past ten years.

Footnote

† Part of the Conducting Polymers for Carbon Electronics themed issue.

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