Alan g macdiarmid biography

Alan Graham MacDiarmid, ONZ FRS (14 April 1927 – 7 February 2007) was a.
I was born a Kiwi (a New Zealander) in Masterton, New Zealand on April 14, 1927, and still am a Kiwi by New Zealand law, although I became a naturalized.
New Zealand-born American chemist who, with Alan J. Heeger and Shirakawa Hideki, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000.

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MacDiarmid, Dr. Alan G.

Alan G. Mac Diarmid

University of Pennsylvania

Inducted 2008

Dr. Alan G. MacDiarmid (1927 – 2007) was born in New Zealand and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He received Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Victoria University College in New Zealand, his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, and a second Ph.D. from Cambridge University, England. Dr. MacDiarmid became known as the “Father of Conductive Polymers.”

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 for discovering inherently conductive polymers or plastics that conduct electricity much like metals. These electrically conductive polymeric materials are also known as “synthetic” metals. Dr. MacDiarmid was the chemist responsible for developing chemical and/or electrochemical doping of polyacetylene. He was also credited with the “rediscovery” of polyaniline, which became the most widely used electrically conductive polymer. This work led to technological applications for these materials in such di

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Alan MacDiarmid, co-discoverer of the field of conducting polymers, more commonly known as "synthetic metals," was the chemist responsible in 1977 for the chemical and electrochemical doping of polyacetylene, (CH)_x, the "prototype" conducting polymer, and the "rediscovery" of polyaniline, now the foremost industrial conducting polymer.

In 1973, he began research on (SN)_x, an unusual polymeric material with metallic conductivity. His interest in organic conducting polymers began in 1975 when he was introduced to a new form of polyacetylene by Dr. Hideki Shirakawa at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. The ensuing collaboration between MacDiarmid, Shirakawa and Alan Heeger (then at the Department of Physics at the University of Pennsylvania) led to the historic discovery of metallic conductivity in an organic polymer.

This initial discovery and ensuing studies, in collaboration with Shirakawa, resulted in the first chemical doping of (CH)_x and detailed physics studies with Heeger. That an organic polymer could be readily doped to the metallic regime introduced

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When we think of materials that conduct electricity, we usually think of metals, not of synthetic polymers such as plastics. Alan MacDiarmid, Alan Heeger, and Hideki Shirakawa received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 for their work on “conductive polymers.”

The MacDiarmid-Heeger Partnership

In 1975 MacDiarmid (1927–2007) and Heeger (b. 1936) were both professors at the University of Pennsylvania, MacDiarmid in chemistry and Heeger in physics. An unusual polymer exhibiting electrical properties had recently been reported in the chemical literature. This polymer, polymeric sulfur nitride, or (SN)_x, consisted of monomers made up of sulfur and nitrogen. MacDiarmid had extensive experience working with sulfur nitride compounds, many of them beautifully colored like (SN)_x, which had a metallic gold color, although it was not a metal. MacDiarmid and Heeger decided to work together to understand this compound.

Shirakawa Signs On

That same year, MacDiarmid was a visiting professor in Japan and went to the Tokyo Institute of Technology to give a talk on (SN)_x. After