This award will support collaborative research between Dr. Alan MacDiarmid, Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania and Professor Serge Lefrant, Laboratoire de Physique Cristalline, University of Nantes, France. The objective of the project is the investigation of the properties of conductive polymers using the technique of Raman scattering. Dr. MacDiarmid and his research group has expertise in the synthesis and characterization of conducting polymers, namely polyanilines and polyacetylenes. The French laboratory has wide experience in studies of conducting polymers by means of resonance Raman scattering. The investigators propose to extend previous experiments to measurements in polarized light of oriented samples. A detailed analysis will be made of oriented polyacetylene, taking into account the corrections introduced by absorption and reflection coefficients measured experimentally at different wavelengths. The French group has demonstrated that such measurements are feasible and preliminary results have shown important consequences concerning the interpretation of experimental data. Results of the proposed research will lead to a better understanding of the structure of conducting polymer, an important topic in current materials research.
