Charge transport in polymers

The electrical properties of organic solids have been studied in a variety of ways by physicists, chemists, and engineers. The threads of such investigations are, of course, woven into the fabric of the Annual Conferences on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena. The solid organic dielectric systems employed by the pioneering electrical technologists were the natural waxes and that cornerstone of the electrical industry, paper or cellulose. It is not without significance that many of those earlier insulating solids were not only organic but bio-organic and polymeric also. Many enlightened biologists and biochemists are taking note of the fact that bio-polymers are conduction-shy and that this is an important property in regulating life processes. But that is another story, perhaps for a Whitehead lecturer at the end of the century. Today we concentrate on insulating polymers that are man-made. Two factors have caused a flowering of interest in such materials in the last decade or two.