In spite of the evidence for the disorder-induced M-I transition as inferred from the transport and optical measurements, the metallic state of conjugated polymers has been a subject of controversy.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The science of semiconducting and metallic polymers is inherently interdisciplinary; it falls at the intersection of chemistry and physics.
However, it required some years before the scientific community in general accepted that flexibility and disorder are very relevant molecular properties also in other systems.
If the polymer chain assumes a helicoidal conformation in the crystalline state, and if it does not contain asymmetric carbon atoms, it can be expected that either helices of the same sense, or, in equal ratio, helices of opposite sense are represented in the lattice.
After some minor pieces of theoretical study that I worked on, a student in my statistical mechanics class brought to my attention a problem in polyelectrolytes.
With this in mind, for some twenty years I have set myself as my particular task the experimental investigation of the connexion between change in the structure and change in the spectra of chemical atoms.
Supramolecular chemistry, the designed chemistry of the intermolecular bond, is rapidly expanding at the frontiers of molecular science with physical and biological phenomena.
The transitions from metallic to critical behavior and from critical to insulating behavior have been induced with a magnetic field, and from insulating to critical and then to metallic behavior with increasing external pressure.
With the assistance of electrical conductivity, we were able to trace by measurements the process of intercalation in a large number of cases and, consequently, to establish experimental foundations for the evaluation of the formation of such intercalation compounds.
Every chemical reaction has a transition state.
The scaling theory of localization demonstrated that the disorder-induced M-I transition was a true phase transition with a well defined critical point.