Chemistry Home > Department Information > Faculty > Alan G. MacDiarmid

		Dr. Alan G. MacDiarmid - Blanchard Professor of Chemistry
		MATERIALS AND POLYMER CHEMISTRY OFFICE: 343 N LAB: 337,335,333,208 N PHONE: (215) 898-8307 E-MAIL: macdiarm@sas.upenn.edu Born: 1927 EDUCATION AND ACADEMIC HISTORY: M.Sc., University of New Zealand (1950) Ph.D., University of Wisconsin (1953) Ph.D., University of Cambridge (1955) Ph.D. (hon.), Linkoping University (Sweden) (1990) Philadelphia Section Award, American Chemical Society (1967) Frederic Stanley Kipping Award, American Chemical Society (1970) Marshall Award, American Chemical Society (1982) Doolittle Award, American Chemical Society (1982) Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Medal and Lectureship (England) (1983) Chemical Pioneer Award, American Institute of Chemists (1984) "Top 100" Innovation Award, Science Digest (1985) Blanchard Professor of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania (1988) John Scott Award, City of Philadelphia (1989) Francis J. Clamer Award, The Franklin Institute (1993) Chemistry of Materials Award, American Chemical Society (1999) Nobel Prize for Chemistry (with Heeger, Shirakawa) (2000)

Research in this group is concerned with non-classical solid-state chemistry. This area of solid-state chemistry encompasses the synthesis and study of a relatively new class of compounds--semiconducting, highly conducting and superconducting inorganic and organic polymers and charge transfer salts. Of particular interest are "synthetic metals"--organic polymers which exhibit the electronic and magnetic properties of metals but retain the mechanical properties of organic polymers. These remarkable materials, involving many completely new concepts in chemistry and physics have become known only during the past 18 years and present an enormous range of challenging synthetic, structural, physical, and theoretical problems at all research levels. The study of these materials involves almost every technique known to the chemist: bench, dry box, and vacuum line syntheses; infrared, NMR, and EPR spectroscopy; magnetic, thermoelectric, electrochemical, conductivity, and X-ray powder studies. Persons engaged in research in this area can choose a research topic which involves s ome or all of the techniques according to their personal preferences. The Polyanilines A large series of synthetic metals can be formed either by chemical or electrochemical polymerization of aniline or its derivatives. The base forms of the polymer can be depicted by the general formula involving alternating reduced and oxidized groups where y can in principle range from 0 to 1. We have found that lustrous, copper-colored, free-standing films of the base form composed of equal numbers of oxidized and reduced forms (y = 0.5) yields a highly paramagnetic, poly(radical cationic) metal upon treatment with aqueous acids, viz., Stretch-alignment of films and fibers of the polymer results in an approximately 100-fold increase in conductivity in the direction of polymer chain alignment. Synthetic, structural, physical, and electrochemical studies of these polymers and their ring- and N-substituted derivatives are presently being performed in order to better understand factors, including molecular conformation, which control their conductivity and chemical and physical properties. Selected Publications Personal Homepage Back to faculty page