Abstract

Before 1960, researchers prepared some conjugated polymers in the semiconductor field, which were used as insulators. Heeger et al. (1977) presented the first conducting polymer, iodine (I₂) doped poly(acetylene) (PAc). Its conductivity was 10³ S/cm. The synthesis of PAc and the enhancement in its conductivity after I₂ doping developed a new area of research (Inzelt, 2012). Hideki Shirakawa, Alan J. Heeger, and Alan MacDiarmid received the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 2000 for discovering the conductivity in PAc (Wallace et al., 2008). This discovery opened a new area of research for the commercialization of these polymers as electrical conductors. These new conducting polymers have numerous applications in the field of sensors, actuators, molecular electronics, supercapacitors, electrochromic windows, corrosion protection, photovoltaics, and optoelectronics (Namsheer and Rout, 2021).