Synthesis, characterization and applications of conductive polymers: A brief review

In view of increasing applications of electro-conductive polymers in various fields such as electronics, smart textiles, sensors, energy storage, and medical. Researchers & Scientists from all over the world have continuously investigating the intrinsic conductive polymers (CPs) and its doping process to gain appreciable electrical conductivity suitable for particular applications. Its unique features such as superior stability, processability, workability, light weight, corrosion resistant, tailoribility, flexibility, and gaining wide range of electrical conductivity on doping drives CPs as a possible substitute for metals and semiconductors. An effort has been made to bring various aspects of CPs viz. different methods of synthesis, its applications, doping techniques, characterization techniques, and current trends of its utility. This review article clearly specifies about the different techniques available for the synthesis of CPs such as Polyacetylene, Polyaniline, Polypyrrole, Polyphenylene, Polythiophene, Polyphenyl vinylene, and Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) via polymerization using chemical, plasma, electro-chemical, photo-chemical, metathesis methods, and so on, and their electrical conductivity values achieved with and without dopants.