Recent advances in electrochemical studies of π-conjugated polymers

We review the evolution of electrochemical studies of conducting polymers into the current state-of-the-art based primarily on our work. While conventional electrochemical experiments sufficed for the needs in the phase of studies of both electrochemical synthesis and characterization of conducting polymers, developments of various new experimental techniques have led to their introduction to this field for more refined information. As a result, the conventional electrochemical, spectroelectrochemical, electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance, impedance, and morphological as well as electrical characterization studies all made important contributions to a better understanding of the polymerization mechanisms and the conductive properties of these classes of polymers. From this review, we hereby expect that the electrochemical techniques will continue to play important roles in bringing this field to the practical applications such as nanoscale electronic devices.