Conducting Polymers

An authentic revolution took place in the area of solid-state chemistry and physics just after World War II. The century of solid state started from the modest beginnings of the transistor at Bell Laboratory. Since then, the area of science and technology has been directed primarily toward the study of alloys, ceramics, and inorganic semiconductors. The size of electronic devices became smaller and smaller, while the dimensionality of materials was also reduced just after the invention of the integrated circuit. It is at this point that the advent of the discovery of quasi one-dimensional conductors has opened up a whole new area of ''nonclassical'' solid-state chemistry and physics. In the modern world, plastic and electrical devices are always tightly integrated together. However, it was in 1977 that an electrically conductive, quasi one-dimensional organic polymer, polyacetylene, was discovered. During the past 30 years, a variety of different conducting polymers have been developed. Excitement about these polymeric materials is evidenced by the fact that the field of conducting polymers has attracted scientists from such diverse areas of interest as synthetic chemistry, electrochemistry, solid-state physics, materials science, polymer science, electronics, and electrical engineering. Among conducting polymers, poly-p-phenylenevinylenes (PPVs) have attained a special place in polymer electronics. The optoelectronic properties initially exposed by PPVs in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) turned these organic electronic conjugated systems from the solo academic interest into a technologically very promising area. The easiness of the tuning of their optoelectronic properties through synthetic modifications make PPVs an outstanding and suitable compound for technological applications and fundamental science development. Unfortunately, the synthesis and structural optoelectronic characterization of novel PPVs is a long and difficult task that sometimes yields unclear results. However, phenylenevinylene oligomers (oPV) can be synthesized and characterized in a very straightforward manner, and their performance in novel applications can be directly related to their structural analogue polymer, methodology designated as the oligomer approach. Herein, we describe the oligomer approach using the Mizoroki-Heck reaction as a synthetic route for oPVs and PPVs, and the importance of an extensive characterization for novel applications, such as photocatalysis and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) matrices, where these electronic conjugated systems have very promising applications