Nobel Lecture: The discovery of polyacetylene film—the dawning of an era of conducting polymers

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000 was awarded for our discovery and development of conducting polymers, but that discovery only happened after much work on polyacetylene. In this lecture, I would like to talk about the early investigations that preceded and eventually led to the discovery of chemical doping. I do hope my talk will be of use for you, the audience, to deepen your understanding of what had happened before and how we arrived at the idea of chemical doping.