A brief perspective on the evolution of plastic electronics – from highly conducting polymers to conjugated organic semiconductors

This Viewpoint reflects on the work published in J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun. in 1977 by the Nobel Prize winners Shirakawa, MacDiarmid and Heeger. This paper, which is one of the most cited ChemComm articles of all time, motivated the rapid development of conducting (conjugated) polymers and the birth of plastic electronics.