An A-to-Z of doping including its definition, its importance,methods of measurement, advantages and disadvantages, propertiesand characteristics--and role in conjugated polymers
The versatility of polymer materials is expanding because of theintroduction of electro-active behavior into the characteristics ofsome of them. The most exciting development in this area is relatedto the discovery of intrinsically conductive polymers or conjugatedpolymers, which include such examples as polyacetylene,polyaniline, polypyrrole, and polythiophene as well as theirderivatives. "Synmet" or "synthetic metal" conjugated polymers,with their metallic characteristics, including conductivity, are ofspecial interest to researchers. An area of limitless potential andapplication, conjugated polymers have sparked enormous interest,beginning in 2000 when the Nobel Prize for the discovery anddevelopment of electrically conducting conjugated polymers wasawarded to three scientists: Alan J. Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid,and Hideki Shirakawa.
Conjugated polymers have a combination of properties--bothmetallic (conductivity) and polymeric; doping gives the conjugatedpolymer's semiconducting a wide range of conductivity, frominsulating to low conducting. The doping process is a testedeffective method for producing conducting polymers assemiconducting material, providing a substitute for inorganicsemiconductors.
Doping in Conjugated Polymers is the first book dedicatedto the subject and offers a comprehensive A-to-Z overview. Itdetails doping interaction, dopant types, doping techniques, andthe influence of the dopant on applications. It explains how theperformance of doped conjugated polymers is greatly influenced bythe nature of the dopants and their level of distribution withinthe polymer, and shows how the electrochemical, mechanical, andoptical properties of the doped conjugated polymers can be tailoredby controlling the size and mobility of the dopants counterions.
The book also examines doping at the nanoscale, in particular,with carbon nanotubes.
Readership
The book will interest a broad range of researchers includingchemists, electrochemists, biochemists, experimental andtheoretical physicists, electronic and electrical engineers,polymer and materials scientists. It can also be used in bothgraduate and upper-level undergraduate courses on conjugatedpolymers and polymer technology.