Conductive Polymers and Carbon Clusters: Analysis of Chemical Composition by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Laser Desorption/Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometries

Abstract

The electrical conductivity of aromatic polymers has become a topic of intense interest in recent years. Benzenoid and heterocyclic aromatic polymers [1–14] and polymers with nonaromatic heteroatoms in the backbone [15–27] (such as ideal structures 1–3, respectively) have been investigated. Not surprisingly, the electrical conductivities of different polymers are different. However, there also is much variation in the observed conductivities of individual samples of each polymer. Depending on the route of synthesis, extent of halogenation, identity and concentration of dopant, level of contaminants, and degree of crystallinity, observed conductivities can vary by as much as 6 orders of magnitude (e.g., Refs. 7, 13, 28, 29, and references therein). Clearly, analytical techniques that provide complete structural characterization of these polymers are needed in order to understand fully the structural properties that underlie their electrical conductivities.