Conductive Polymers




Conductive polymers  are organic polymers that conduct electricity.Such compounds may have metallic conductivity or can be semiconductors . The biggest advantage of conductive polymers is their processability, mainly by dispersion.
A dispersion is a phenomenon  in which particles are dispersed in a continuous phase of a different state.
Conductive polymers are generally not thermoplastics , i.e. , they are not thermoformable. But, like insulating polymers, they are organic materials. They can offer high electrical conductivity but do not show similar mechanical properties to other commercially available polymers. The electrical properties can be fine-tuned using the methods of organic synthesis  and by advanced dispersion techniques.

Thermoplastics:

The polymer chains associate through intermolecular forces , which weaken rapidly with increased temperature, yielding a viscous liquid. Thus, thermoplastics may be reshaped by heating and are typically used to produce parts by various polymer processing techniques.
Organic synthesis is a special branch of chemical synthesis and is concerned with the construction of organic compounds via organic reactions .
Each step of a synthesis involves a chemical reaction, and reagents and conditions for each of these reactions must be designed to give an adequate yield of pure product.
The conductivity of such polymers is the result of several processes. For example, in traditional polymers such as polyethylenes, the valence electrons are bound in sp3 hybridized covalent bonds . Such "sigma-bonding electrons" have low mobility and do not contribute to the electrical conductivity of the material. However, in conjugated materials, the situation is completely different. Conducting polymers have backbones of contiguous sp 2 hybridized carbon centers. One valence electron on each center resides in a p z orbital, which is orthogonal to the other three sigma-bonds. All the pz orbitals combine with each other to a molecule wide delocalized set of orbitals. The electrons in these delocalized orbitals have high mobility when the material is "doped" by oxidation, which removes some of these delocalized electrons. Thus, the conjugated p-orbitals form a one-dimensional electronic band , and the electrons within this band become mobile when it is partially emptied.