Conformational defects in a conducting polymer

Electrically conducting organic polymers represent serious candidates for some of the electronic materials of tomorrow. The role of certain charge-carrying self-localized states, such as solitons, polarons and bipolarons, in determining the nature of the optical and electronic transport properties of these conjugated polymers is well established. These self-localized states are commonly referred to as ‘defects'. Recently, the list of possible ‘defects’ in these conducting polymers has expanded to include real defects which degrade the electrical properties, but lead to other interesting and potentially useful properties, such as colour changes.