Energy in plastics: investigation and development of porous conducting polymers and polymer-nanoparticles composites for electrochemical energy applications

Conducting polymers (CPs) have become the focus of much research due to their interesting properties, such as a wide range of conductivity, facile production, mechanical stability, light weight, low cost and the ease with which conducting polymers can be nanostructured to meet specific applications. They have become valuable materials for many applications, in particular for energy storage and generation. Recently, conducting polymers have been studied for use in supercapacitors, batteries and fuel cells. The background and theory behind their conductivity as well as highlights on the recent contributions of conducting polymers to the broad field of energy research is presented in the introduction chapter. Furthermore, the methods of production of the conducting polymers in addition to the different ways utilised to nano-engineer special morphologies for energy storage materials are also discussed.