A nonconjugated radical polymer glass with high electrical conductivity

Moving charges with radicals Conducting polymers usually contain backbones with multiple bonds. After chemical doping to remove some of the electrons, charge carriers can move freely. These conjugated backbones can also make the polymers rigid and hard to process. Joo et al. synthesized a redox-active, nonconjugated radical polymer that exhibited high conductivity (see the Perspective by Lutkenhaus). The polymer has a low glass transition temperature, allowing it to form intermolecular percolation networks for electrons. Science , this issue p. 1391 ; see also p. 1334