CONDUCTING POLYMERS - NOVEL MATERIALS FOR CHEMICAL AND BIO-SENSORS

Conducting polymers are novel organic semiconducting materials with pr omise in a wide range of electronic applications from charge storage t o sensors. The electronic and optical properties of these polymers are very sensitive to their chemical and electrochemical state, with cond uctivities changing by several orders of magnitude in response to smal l changes in the chemical/electrochemical state. This property has bee n exploited to develop sensors, and electronic switching devices. Some of the progress in this direction is described here with specific ref erence to work done at IIT, Bombay.