Polyacetylene is an ideal system to gain a better understanding of the nature of charge transport in conducting polymers. Now, individual atomically precise polyacetylene chains have been synthesized on a copper surface and characterized using a range of techniques, revealing a doping-induced semiconductor-to-metal transition.
This study provides a platform for studying individual polyacetylene chains in real and reciprocal space, which may be further extended to study the intrinsic properties of non-linear excitons in conducting polymers.

This work was carried out by Dr. Shiyong Wang, Dr. Qiang Sun & colleagues in the group of Prof. Roman Fasel, in collaboration with the group of Prof. Wei Xu at Tongji University, Shanghai.

References:

• S. Wang, Q. Sun, O. Gröning, R. Widmer, C. A. Pignedoli, L. Cai, H. Ju, J. Zhu, P. Ruffieux, R. Fasel, W. Xu;
  "On-surface synthesis and characterization of individual polyacetylene chains"
  Nature Chemistry, 2019, 11(10), 924-930; doi:10.1038/s41557-019-0316-8.