While studying science in school we may have been taught that electrical conduction occurs in metals and in some liquids containing ions. That particular lesson changed when chemists Alan MacDiarmid (1927- 2007) and Hideki Shirakawa (b. 1936), and physicist Alan Heeger (b. 1936) created the first polymer that could conduct electricity.
Shirakawa was working on the polymerization of acetylene when a mistake was made in the amount of a catalyst used in the process (a thousand times too much!). Instead of the usual black powder, a "ragged film" of polyacetylene was formed. This film had a metallic luster, and Shirakawa began investigating its properties. Alan MacDiarmid at the University of Pennsylvania invited him to collaborate, and together with Alan Heeger, the three experimented on modifying the polyacetylene by oxidization with iodine vapor. When one of Heeger's students was examining this iodine-doped version, it was discovered that the electrical conductivity had increased by a staggering ten million times. The three scientists published their work in 1977, launching the new field of polymer-based electronics. They were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000.
Today the best conductive polymers have an electrical conductivity close to that of copper. Since their discovery, a wide range of applications has arisen. Just as metal wire can glow via electricity, so can conductive polymers. This electroluminescence is much more efficient than traditional light bulbs. There are also organic LEDs (light-emitting diodes), which are being developed into tiny highly efficient screens for use in cell phones and cameras.
