Alan G. MacDiarmidBorn 14 Apr 1927; died 7 Feb 2007 at age 79.Alan Graham MacDiarmid was a New Zealand-American chemist whosharedthe 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (with Alan Heeger and Hideki Shirakawa) “for the discovery and development of conductive polymers.”Plastics (formed of repeated units in long-chain polymer molecules) most often do not conduct electricity, and are used for insulation. At the end of the 1970's, these scientists devised polymer materials that were semi-conductors, able to conduct electricity. Practical applications now include conductive polymers in “smart”windows able to exclude sunlight, light-emitting diodes, solar cells and displays for mobile telephones and small television screens. Research has been stimulated to attempt to produce transistors consisting of individual molecules with which to dramatically reduce the size of computers.« |
