Electric Plastics

Abstract

This article reviews the importance of conductive polymer. The big chemical company is marketing the polythiophene under the trade name Baytron. The material could also be used to make plastics paintable by adding the conductive agent first, or in the electrodes of small, high-performance tantalum capacitors found in telecommunications, computer, and automotive products. Probably the most significant commercialization of conductive polymers was for flexible, long-lived batteries that were produced in quantity by Bridgestone Corp. and Seiko Co. in Japan and by BASF/Varta in Germany. Conductive polymers are long, carbon-based chains composed of simple repeating units called monomers. The list of potential applications for conductive polymers remains a long one, and includes antiradiation coatings, batteries, catalysts, deicer panels, electrochromic windows, electromechanical actuators, embedded-array antennas, fuel cells, lithographic resists, nonlinear optics, radar dishes, and wave guides. However, how big an impact the materials will make in these markets remains unclear.