Conductivity and The Nobel Prize
See also: Ziegler–Natta catalyst and Conductive polymerThe 1964 monograph Organic Semiconductors, references several previous reports of high-conductivity oxidized polyacetylenes. Similarly, highly-conductive organic charge-transfer complexes were reported by several groups in the 1950s (see conductive polymer and organic conductor).
Interest in the conductive properties of oxidatively doped polyacetylenes was reignited in the mid 1970s with the accidental discovery of a silvery, conductive polyacetylene by the research group of Professor Hideki Shirakawa. The student had polymerized acetylene with 1000 times the amount of catalyst normally used when performing the reaction. Shirakawa later collaborated with physicist Alan J. Heeger and chemist Alan G MacDiarmid, discovering in 1976 that oxidation of this material with iodine results in a 108-fold increase in conductivity. The conductivity of this doped material can approach the conductivity of the best available conductor, silver. The three were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 for their discoveries.
Read more about this topic: Polyacetylene
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“Parents can fail to cheer your successes as wildly as you expected, pointing out that you are sharing your Nobel Prize with a couple of other people, or that your Oscar was for supporting actress, not really for a starring role. More subtly, they can cheer your successes too wildly, forcing you into the awkward realization that your achievement of merely graduating or getting the promotion did not warrant the fireworks and brass band.”
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