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In the last decade the discovery that it is possible to tirely new class of conducting polymers. In 1976-1977,
control the electrical conductivity of polymers over the it was observed that the room-temperature conductivity
range from insulating to metallic has led to substantial of (SN), can be enhanced by an order of magnitude
efforts to prepare conducting polymers for technological following exposure to bromine and similar oxidizing
applications. Conducting polymers have also presented agent^.^ The conducting entity is now no longer a
a strong fundamental scientific challenge which has neutral polymer but a polymeric cation, charge neu-
been taken up by a diverse community of chemists trality being preserved by incorporating into the ma-
physicists, materials scientists, and theoreticians both terial the reduced form of the oxidizing agent (such as
in academia and in industry. The close interaction Br3- in the case of exposure to bromine).
between these scientists with very different back- The major breakthrough in the area of conducting
grounds has been a significant factor in the discovery plastics occurred later in 1977 when the same redox
of much of the new exciting chemistry and physics in chemistry was applied to an intrinsically insulating
the field of conducting polymers.' In this Account, we organic polymer, polyacetylene. It was discovered that
describe from a chemist's perspective the models re- polyacetflene, which has an intrinsic conductivity much
cently proposed to explain the mechanisms of doping
and conductivity in organic polymers, which are too
often expressed in terms foreign to most chemists.
lower than
- (B.cm)-', could be made highly con-
ducting, lo3 (Q.cm)-l, by exposing it to oxidizing or
reducing agent^.^ This process is often referred to as
A key discovery in the development of conducting "doping" by analogy with the doping of inorganic sem-
polymers was the finding in 1973 that the inorganic iconductors. This is a rather misleading analogy, how-
polymer polysulfur nitride, (SN),, is a metaL2 The ever, and the process is best viewed as a redox reaction.
room-temperature conductivity of (SN), is of the order The insulating neutral polymer is converted into an
ionic complex consisting of a polymeric cation (or anion)
for copper and -
of lo3 (Q-cm)-',to be compared with -6 X lo5 (Q.cm)-l
(n.cm)-l for polyethylene. Below
a critical temperature of about 0.3 K, (SN), becomes
and a counterion which is the reduced form of the ox-
idizing agent (or the oxidized form of the reducing
a supercond~ctor.~ These discoveries were of particular agent). In solid-state physics terminology, the use of
importance because they proved the existence of highly an oxidizing agent corresponds to p-type doping and
conducting polymers and stimulated the enormous that of a reducing agent to n-type doping. An impor-
amount of work necessary to synthesize other polymeric tant criterion in selecting potentially conducting poly-
conductors. It must be stressed that the metallic mers is therefore the ease with which the system can
character of (SN), is an intrinsic property of the ma- be oxidized or reduced. This accounts in part for the
terial, related with the presence of one unpaired elec- choice of wbonded unsaturated polymers which, like
tron for each S-N unit. As a result, the highest occu- polyacetylene, have small ionization potentials and/or
pied electronic levels (i.e., valence band) are only large electron affinities. Electrons of .rr character can
half-occupied. Since there is no forbidden gap between be relatively easily removed or added to form a poly-
the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied levels, the meric ion without much disruption of the u bonds which
unpaired electrons can readily move under the appli- are primarily responsible for holding the polymer to-
cation of an electrical field giving rise to electrical gether.
conductivity. Unlike (SN),, most other polymeric ma- Following polyacetylene, this basic principle has been
terials correspond to closed-shell systems where all the applied with success to an increasingly large number
electrons are paired; such an electronic configuration of other organic polymers.' The structures of the
leads to dielectric polymers.
+ Chercheur qualifi6 of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Re-
Although its other physical properties, such as its search (FNRS). Permanent address: Lab. Chimie Thgorique Appliqub,
explosive nature, prevented it from becoming com- Fac. Univ. Notre-Dame de la Paix, B-5000 Namur, Belgium.
mercially important, (SN), provided the field with the (1) For comprehensive overviews of the field of conducting polymers
insight that eventually led to the discovery of an en- and ita recent developments, see, e.g.: (a) Proceedings of the Intemational
Conference on Conducting Polymers, J . Phys. (Les Ulis Fr.), 44, C3
(1983); (b) Proceedings of the Workshop on Synthetic Metals, Synth.
Met., 9,129-346 (1984); (c) Proceedings of the International Conference
Jean-Luc Bredas was born in Fraire, Belgium, in May 1954. He obtalned on Synthetic Metals, Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst., 117-121, (1985). (d)
his Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from the University of Namur, under the "Handbook on Conducting Polymers"; T. J. Skotheim, Ed.; Marcel
supervision of Professor J. M. Andre. I n 1980-1981 he held a joint postdoc- Dekker; New York, in press). (e) W. D. Gill, T. C. Clarke, and G. B.
toral position at Allied Corp. and MIT. He is presently Chercheur Quailfie of Street, Appl. Phys. Commun., 2, 211 (1982).
the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), working at the (2) V. V. Walatka, M. M. Labes, and J. H. Perlstein, Phys. Rev. Lett.,
University of Namur and as a visiting scientist at IBM San Jose. He uses 31, 1139 (1973).
quantum chemical methods to study the electronic structure of conducting (3) R. L. Greene, G. B. Street, and L. J. Suter, Phys. Reu. Lett., 34,
polymers and polymer surfaces and interfaces. 577 (1975).
G. Bryan Street received his B.Sc. (Chemistry 1959) and Ph.D. (Applied (4) W. D. Gill, W. Bludau, R. H. Geiss, P. M. Grant, R. L. Greene, J.
Science 1962) from the University of Leeds. After working with Professor A. J. Mayerle, and G. B. Street, Phys. Rev. Lett., 38, 1305 (1977).
B. Burg at the University of Southern California, he joined IBM in 1964. At (5) C. K. Chiang, C. R. Fincher, Y. W. Park, A. J. Heeger, H. Shira-
IBM he has worked with photoconducting materials and magnetic materials kawa, E. J. Louis, S. C. Gau, and A. G. McDiarmid, Phys. Reo. Lett., 39,
and since 1975 with conducting polymers. 1098 (1977).
L J
i J
polyparaphenylene 3-300 F
sulfide
Figure 2. Illustration of the energies involved in a molecular
ionization process. EIP+is the vertical ionization energy, E,,,, the
polyparaphenylene &CHPCH+ 7 1-1000 P relaxation energy gained in the ionized state,&isr the distortion
vir.ylene energy to be paid in the ground state in order that the molecule
adopts the equilibrium geometry of the ionized state, and EIP.d,
the ionization energy of the distorted molecule.
pol ypyrrole 40-200 P
polythiophene 10-100 P
i J
polyisothianaphthene 1-50 P
(a) (b)
L
Figure 3. Schematic illustration of the one-electron energy levels
for an organic molecule (e.g., biphenyl) in its ground-state elec-
Figure 1. Structure, maximum conductivities (in f2-l cm-'), and
tronic configuration adopting: (a) the equilibrium geometry of
type of doping (n or p) for some of the more important conducting
the ground state; (b) the equilibrium geometry of the first ionized
polymers.
state.
principal conducting polymer systems are displayed in from the formation of unfilled electronic bands. It was
Figure 1. Note that the maximum dopant concentra- simply assumed that upon p-type or n-type doping,
tions are typically of the order of several mole percent electrons were respectively, removed from the top of the
per repeat unit of the chain backbone, for instance up VI3 or added to the bottom of the CB, in analogy to the
to 20% in the case of polyacetylene doped by iodine, mechanism of generation of charge carriers in doped
([CHIIO.,),. inorganic semiconductors. This assumption was how-
In some cases, oxidation or reduction of the polymer ever quickly challenged by the discovery that poly-
can be achieved electrochemically by subjecting the acetylene (PA)! polyparaphenylene (PPP),7and poly-
neutral polymer to the appropriate oxidizing or re- pyrrole (PPY)~ can display conductivity which does not
ducing voltage in an electrochemical cell. The charge seem to be associated with unpaired electrons but
appearing on the polymer chain is then neutralized by rather with spinless charge carriers.
a counterion from the electrolyte solution. An inter- In organic molecules, it is usually the case that the
esting group of conducting polymers consists of those equilibrium geometry in the ionized state is different
prepared by the electrochemical oxidation and simul- from that in the ground state, e.g., the geometry of
taneous polymerization of some monomer which reacts neutral biphenyl is benzenoid-like but becomes qui-
at the anode of an electrochemical cell. This group noid-like in the ionized state, for example, in the Rb+
includes polypyrrole, polythiophene, and their deriva- (biphenyl)- c ~ m p l e x . ~The energies involved in the
tives.' ionization process of a molecule are schematically de-
Nature of the Charges Appearing on the picted in Figure 2. A vertical, Franck-Condon like
Polymer Chains upon Doping ionization process costs an energy EIP.". If a geometry
relaxation then takes place in the ionized state, we gain
In a polymer, just as in a crystal, the interaction of back a relaxation energy Erel.Conceptually, going from
a polymer unit cell with all its neighbors leads to the the ground state to the relaxed ionized state can also
formation of electronic bands. The highest occupied be thought of in the following way. The geometry of
electronic levels constitute the valence band (VB) and the molecule is first distorted in the ground state in
the lowest unoccupied levels, the conduction band (CB).
The width of the forbidden band, or bandgap (Eg), (6) S. Ikehata, J. Kaufer, T. Woerner, A. Pron, M. A. Druy, A. Sivak,
A. J. Heeger, and A. G. McDiarmid, Phys. Reo. Lett., 45, 423 (1980).
between the VB and CB determines the intrinsic elec- (7)M.Peo, S. Roth, K. Dransfeld, B. Tieke, J. Hocker, H. Gross, A.
trical properties of the material. For all the organic Grupp, and H. Sixl, Solid State Commun., 35, 119 (1980).
conjugated polymers we have discussed so far, the (8)(a) J. C. Scott, M. Krounbi, P. Pfluger, and G. B. Street, Phys. Reu.
B: Condens. Matter, 28, 2140 (1983);(b) J. C. Scott, J. L. BrCdas, P.
bandgap is larger than 1.5 eV so that these materials Pfluger, K. Yakushi, and G. B. Street, Synth. Met., 9,165 (1984);(c) J.
are intrinsically insulating. C. Scott, J. L. BrCdas, J. H. Kaufman, P. Pfluger, G. B. Street, and K.
Yakushi, Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst., 118, 163 (1985).
Initially, the high conductivity increase observed (9)R. H. Baughman, J. L. BrCdas, R. R. Chance, R. L. Elsenbaumer,
upon doping organic polymers was thought to result and L. W. Shacklette, Chem. Reu., 82,209 (1982).
Vol. 18, 1985 Solitons in Conducting Polymers 311
Level
1 - 1
f Af
(ai (bi
Figure 4. Illustration of the band structure of a polymeric chain Figure 5. Band structure of a polymer chain containing: (a) two
in the case of (a) a vertical ionization process and (b) the formation polarons; (b) one bipolaron.
of a polaron. The chemical potential, or Fermi level, is taken as
reference level. deform the lattice around it is the manifestation of a
strong electron-phonon coupling.
such a way that the molecule adopts the equilibrium The quantity At - &is (= Erel)corresponds to the
geometry of the ionized state. This costs a distortion polaron binding energy. Our calculations (based on
(elastic) energy Eaa (Figure 2). If we consider the Huckel theory with u bond compressibility) have in-
one-electron energy levels of the molecule, this distor- dicated that polaron formation is energetically favorable
tion leads to an upward shift At of the highest occupied in all the organic conjugated polymers we have studied.
molecular orbital (HOMO) and a downward shift of the The polaron binding energy is of the order of 0.05 eV
lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO), as il- in PA, lob~ll0.03 eV in PPP,'l and 0.12 eV in PPy.12 It
lustrated in Figure 3. If we then proceed to the ioni- must be stressed that in the case of polaron formation,
zation of the distorted molecule, it requires an energy the VB remains full and the CB empty. There is no
EIP-d. appearance of metallic character since the half-occupied
From Figure 2, it is clear that it is energetically fa- level is localized in the gap (Figure 4b).
vorable to have a geometry relaxation in the ionized Next, we consider what happens when a second
state when the quantity EIP-V - E1p-d (which actually electron is removed from the polymer chain: Is it more
corresponds to At as can be inferred from Figure 3) is favorable to take the second electron from the polaron
larger than the distortion energy E,; or, in other words, or from anywhere else on the chain (in which case we
when the reduction At in ionization energy upon dis- have two polarons)? In the former case, we have bi-
tortion is larger than the energy Ed& required to make polaron formation.lOb~cJ1 A bipolaron is defined as a pair
that distortion. of like charges (here a dication) associated with a strong
In a polymer, or any solid, a vertical ionization pro- local lattice distortion. The bipolaron can be thought
cess EIPmV results in creating a hole on top of the valence of as analogous to the Cooper pair in the BCS theory
band; see Figure 4a. In this case, three remarks can of superconductivity,'3 which consists of two electrons
be made. First, by the very definition of the process, coupled through a lattice vibration, i.e., a phonon. The
no geometry relaxation (lattice distortion) takes place formation of a bipolaron implies that the energy gained
on the chain. Second, the positive charge on the chain by the interaction with the lattice is larger than the
is delocalized over the whole polymer chain. Third, the Coulomb repulsion between the two charges of same
presence of a hole (unfilled level) on top of the VB sign confined in the same 10cation.l~
leads, as we discussed above, to the appearance of a The electronic band structure corresponding to the
metallic character. This situation corresponds to the presence of two polarons and that of one bipolaron is
initial assumption made about the conduction mecha- depicted in Figure 5. Since the lattice relaxation
nism in doped organic polymers. around two charges is stronger than around only one
However, in an organic polymer chain, it can be en- charge, &is for the bipolaron is larger than Edisfor the
ergetically favorable to localize the charge that appears polaron and the electronic states appearing in the gap
on the chain and to have, around the charge, a local for a bipolaron are further away from the band edges
distortion (relaxation)of the lattice. This process causes than for a polaron.
the presence of localized electronic states in the gap due If we compare the creation energy of a bipolaron
to a local upward shift At of the HOMO and downward relative to that of two polarons, our calculations for PA,
shift of the LUMO (Figure 4b). Considering the case PPP, and PPy indicate that the distortion energy &is
of oxidation, i.e., the removal of an electron from the to form one bipolaron is roughly equal to that to form
chain, we lower the ionization energy by an amount At. two polarons.11J2 On the other hand, the decrease in
If At is larger than the energy Ed&necessary to distort ionization energy is much more important in the bipo-
the lattice locally around the charge, this charge laron case (2Atbip) than for two polarons (2AtP''); see
localization process is favorable relative to the band Figure 5. This is the reason why one bipolaron is
process. We then obtain the formation of what con- thermodynamically more stable than two polarons in
densed-matter physicists call a polaron." In chemical these systems despite the Coulomb repulsion between
terminology, the polaron is just a radical ion (spin two similar charges. Furthermore, the latter is also
associated with a lattice distortion and the presence of largely screened by the presence of dopants (counter-
localized electronic states in the gap referred to as po-
laron states. The ability of a charge to significantly (11) J. L. Brfdas, R. R. Chance, and R. Silbey, Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst.,
77, 319 (1981);Phys. Reu. B: Condens. Mutter, 26, 5843 (1982).
(12) J. L. Brfdas, J. C. Scott, K. Yakushi, and G. B. Street, Phys. Reu.
(IO) (a) W. P. Su and J. R. Schrieffer, h o c . Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., B: Condens. Matter, 30, 1023 (1984).
77, 5626 (1980);(b) A. R. Bishop, D. K. Campbell, and K. Fesser, Mol. (13) J. Bardeen, L. N. Cooper, and J. R. Schrieffer, Phys. Rev., 108,
Cryst. Liq. Cryst., 77, 253 (1981); (c) S. A. Brazovskii and N. Kirova, 1175 (1957). See also: ref 18, chapter 10.7.
JETP Lett., 33, 4 (1981). (14) P. W. Anderson, Phys. Reu. Lett., 34, 953 (1975).
312 Bredas and Street Accounts of Chemical Research
I
L
I A B
1
-Aro 0 +Aro
Ar
(a) (b) (C)
Figure 6. Total energy curve for an infinite trans-polyacetylene Figure 8. Top: schematic illustration of the geometric structure
chain as a function of the degree of bond length alternation Ar. of a neutral soliton on a trans-polyacetylene chain. Bottom: band
The optimal absolute value for Ar, Are, is experimentally -0.08 structure for a trans-polyacetylene chain containing (a) a neutral
A (rc=c = 1.36 A; rc-c = 1.44 soliton, (b) a positively charged soliton, and ( c ) a negatively
charged soliton.
(a)
As a result of the degeneracy, the two charges forming
I -*e
t
a would-be bipolaron in trans-PA can readily separate
(Figure 7). This process is favorable because there is
t no increase in distortion energy when the two charges
ib) / / / /
separate, since the geometric structure that appears
(C)/ -
I t
between the two charges has the same energy as the
geometric structure on the other sides of the charges.
From Figures 6 and 7, it is apparent that an isolated
charge on a trans-PA chain constitutes a boundary
Figure 7. Illustration of the formation of two charged solitons between a segment of the chain adopting the geometric
on a chain of trans-polyacetylene. structure corresponding to one of the potential wells
and a segment adopting the structure corresponding to
ions) with opposite charges. The bipolaron binding the other well. Analogy can be made with a magnetic
energy [= (2AebiP) - EdisbiP) - EdisbiP] is calculated to be domain wall marking the separation between two Bloch
larger than that of two polarons by about 0.45 eV in domains in a ferromagnetic material.'* In physics
PPy and 0.34 eV in PPP.'lJZ terminology, such a charge associated with a boundary
In case of p- (n-) type doping, the bipolaron levels in or domain wall is called a soliton, because it has the
the gap are empty (fully occupied); see Figure 5b. The properties of a solitary wave which can propagate
bipolarons are thus spinless. The presence of bipo- without deformation and di~sipation.'~A soliton can
larons on polymer chains result in the possibility of two also be viewed as an excitation of the system that leads
optical transitions below the bandgap transition: for from one potential well to another well of the same
p-type doping, from the VB to the lower bipolaron level energy (Figure 6).19 A neutral soliton occurs in pristine
and from the VB to the upper bipolaron level. The trans-PA when a chain contains an odd number of
oscillator strength for the lowest energy optical bipo- conjugated carbons, in which case there remains an
laron transition has been calculated to be much larger unpaired r electron, a radical, which corresponds to a
than for the highest energy one.l5 In the case of po- soliton (Figure 8). In a long chain, the spin density in
larons, a third absorption is possible below the gap, a neutral soliton (or charge density in a charged soliton)
corresponding to an optical transition between the two is not localized on one carbon but spread over several
polaron levels (Figure 5a). carbons,16,20p21which gives the soliton a width. Starting
trans-Polyacetylene is unique so far among con- from one side of the soliton, the double bonds become
ducting polymers because it possesses a degenerate gradually longer and the single bonds shorter, so that
ground state,16 i.e., two geometric structures corre- arriving at the other side, the alternation has completely
sponding exactly to the same total energy (Figure 6). reversed. This implies that the bond lengths do
The two structures differ from one another by the ex- equalize in the middle of a soliton. The presence of a
change of the carbon-carbon single and double bonds. soliton leads to the appearance of a localized electronic
Experimentally, the degree of bond length alternation level at mid-gap, which is half-occupied in the case of
Ar (i.e., the difference between the length of a single a neutral soliton and empty (doubly occupied) in the
and a double bond) is -0.08 A.17 case of a positively (negatively)charged soliton (Figure
(15)K. Fesser, A. R. Bishop, and D. K. Campbell, Phys. Reu. B: (18)See, for instance: M. A. Omar, 'Elementary Solid State Physics",
Condens. Matter, 27,4804 (1983). Addison-Wesley, Reading, 1978,Chapter 9.11.
(16)W.P.Su,J. R. Schrieffer, and A. J. Heeger, Phys. Rev. Lett., 42, (19)C. Rebbi, Sci. Am., 240,92 (1979).
1698 (1979). (20) D. S.Boudreaux, R. R. Chance, J. L. Bredas, and R. Silbey, Phys.
(17)(a) C. R. Fincher, C. E. Chen, A. J. Heeger, A. G. McDiarmid, and Rev. B: Condens. Matter, 28,6927 (1983).
J. B. Hastings, Phys. Reu. Lett., 48,100(1982);(b) C. S.Yannoni and T. (21)H. Thomann, L.R. Dalton, Y. Tomkiewicz, N. S. Shiren, and T.
C. Clarke, Phys. Reu. Lett., 51, 1191 (1983). C. Clarke, Phys. Reu. Lett., 50, 533 (1983).
Vol. 18, 1985 Solitons in Conducting Polymers 313
I cB I I CB I
I ~ I ibl IC1