Polythiophene composites: a review of selected applications

Abstract

Conducting polymers (CPs) provide a class of processible, film forming semiconductors and metals. Electrical and optical properties of CPs, similar to those of metals and semiconductors, and the attractive properties associated with conventional polymers such as ease of synthesis and processing, has given these polymers a wide range of applications in the microelectronics industry, in biological field and also as humidity, chemical and mechanical sensors. The principal interest in the use of polymers lies in the scope for low cost manufacturing. Organic polymers offer several advantages over analogous inorganic semiconductors, the most important of which are the processability and the large surface film technology together with the possibility of tuning the polymer properties through a chemical design of the constituent units. In contrast, problems of environmental stability and the inability to process these into useful devices constitute the main drawbacks of organic materials. To set a material suitable for applications in various technological fields one has to improve the processability, mechanical strength and environmental stability of the polyheterocycles: one method adopted to do this is synthesizing the composites of conducting polymers within a matrix of insulating polymers. In this paper, the science of conducting polymers will be discussed. A review from literature on selected applications of organic devices based on conducting polythiophene and its composites will be discussed with a view to targeting the areas of future research in this topic.