A RANDOM NETWORK MODEL FOR ELECTRICAL-TRA NSPORT IN CONDUCTING POLYMERS

A random resistor network is proposed as a conceptual mesoscopic model for electrical transport in conducting polymers. In such a theoretica l famework, structural and phenomenological aspects of the system can be simultaneously represented. The influence of topological and morpho logical disorder, chain length, chain length distribution, and polymer orientation on the overall conductivity of the idealized polymeric sa mple is investigated. The results of our simulations revealed a strong structural effect on the electrical transport efficiency of idealized conducting polymer systems. We demonstrated that the size scaling pro perties of conducting polymer systems might be susceptible not only to their topological and morphological features but also to the physical conditions. The main conclusion of our work refers to the potentialit ies of the network modelling technique as a tool for a better design o f conducting polymer characteristics.