The Molecular Structures and Modification Methods of Conducting Polymers

Extensive studies have been done in conducting polymers (CPs) in the past decades. To better design and produce CPs, the physiochemistry principles and mechanisms behind the conductivity should be deeply understood. Here in this passage, it is tried to describe the main determining factors of conducting electrons in CPs. Four factors are found to be interesting and important, which are the backbone structure, functional pendant group attached to the backbone, doping degree and grafting. The energy gap theory is applied to describe the phenomenon. The author studied, analyzed and summed up the existing pieces of literature, comparing the conductivity and structure of typical CPs in different conditions, whether they are doped, grafted, etc. The author suggested that the conducting polymers can be classified by the elements in the backbones. For a type of CPs, different kinds of modifications will affect the properties. To evaluate the properties of CPs, two main parameters are discussed.