What are Electronically Conducting Polymers and There Advantages Notes Chapter 3 Electrochemistry Chemistry Class 12

Q-20 What are Electronically conducting polymers and there advantages?
In 1977 MacDiarmid, Heeger and Shirakawa discovered that acetylene gas can be polymerised to produce a polymer, polyacetylene when exposed to vapours of iodine acquires metallic lustre and conductivity. Since then several organic conducting polymers have been made such as polyaniline, polypyrrole and polythiophene. These organic metals, being composed wholly of elements like carbon, hydrogen and occasionally nitrogen, oxygen or sulphur, are much lighter than normal metals and can be used for making light-weight batteries. Besides, they have the mechanical properties of polymers such as flexibility so that one can make electronic devices such as transistors that can bend like a sheet of plastic. For the discovery of conducting polymers, MacDiarmid, Heeger and Shirakawa were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the year 2000.