MacDiarmid worked in the School of Chemistry at the
University of St Andrews in Scotland for a year as a member of the junior faculty. He then took a faculty position in chemistry at the
University of Pennsylvania, United States, where he became a full professor in 1964. MacDiarmid spent the greater part of his career on the chemistry faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked for 45 years. He was appointed Blanchard Professor of Chemistry in 1988. In 2002 MacDiarmid also joined the faculty of the
University of Texas at Dallas.
Conductive polymers His best-known research was the discovery and development of
conductive polymers—plastic materials that conduct electricity. He collaborated with the Japanese chemist
Hideki Shirakawa and the American physicist
Alan Heeger in this research and published the first results in 1977. The three of them shared the 2000
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this work. The Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery that plastics can, after certain modifications, be made electrically conductive. The work progressed to yield important practical applications. Conductive plastics can be used for anti-static substances for photographic film and 'smart' windows that can exclude sunlight. Semi-conductive polymers have been applied in light-emitting diodes, solar cells and displays in mobile telephones. Future developments in molecular electronics are predicted to dramatically increase the speed while reducing the size of computers. MacDiarmid also travelled around the world for speaking engagements that impressed upon listeners the value of globalising the effort of innovation in the 21st century. In one of his last courses, in 2001, MacDiarmid elected to lead a small seminar of incoming freshmen about his research activities. Overall, his name is on over 600 published papers and 20 patents.
Selected publications • Chiang, C.K.; Druy, M.A.; Gau, S.C.; Heeger, A.J.; Louis, E.J.; MacDiarmid, A.G.; Park, Y.W.; Shirakawa, H., "Synthesis of Highly Conducting Films of Derivatives of Polyacetylene, (CH)x,"
J. Am. Chem. Soc.,
100, 1013 (1978). • Heeger, A. J.; MacDiarmid, A. G.,
Polyacetylene, (CH){sub x}, as an Emerging Material for Solar Cell Applications. Final Technical Report, March 19, 1979 – March 18, 1980,
University of Pennsylvania (June 1980). • MacDiarmid, A. G.,
Energy Systems Based on Polyacetylene: Rechargeable Batteries and Schottky Barrier Solar Cells. Final Report, March 1, 1981 – February 29, 1984,
University of Pennsylvania (February 1984). •
The Workshop on Conductive Polymers: Final Report,
U.S. Department of Energy Division of Materials Sciences,
Brookhaven National Laboratory (October 1985). • Chiang, J.-C., and MacDiarmid, A.G., "Polyaniline': Protonic Acid Doping of the Emeraldine Form to the Metallic Regime,"
Synth. Met.,
13, 193 (1986). • MacDiarmid, A.G.; Chiang, J.-C.; Richter, A.F.; Epstein, A.J., "Polyaniline: A New Concept in Conducting Polymers,"
Synth. Met.,
18, 285 (1987). • MacDiarmid, A.G., Yang, L.S., Huang, W.-S., and Humphrey, B.D., "Polyaniline: Electrochemistry and Application to Rechargeable Batteries".
Synth. Met.,
18, 393 (1987). • Kaner, R.B.; MacDiarmid, A.G., "Plastics That Conduct Electricity,"
Scientific American, 106 (February 1988). • MacDiarmid, A.G.; Epstein, A.J., " 'Synthetic Metals': A Novel Role for Organic Polymers,"
Macromol. Chem.,
51, 11 (1991). • MacDiarmid, A.G.; Epstein, A.J., "Science and Technology of Conducting Polymers," in
Frontiers of Polymer Research, P.N. Prasad and J.K. Nigam, Eds., Plenum Press, New York, 1991, p. 259. • Wang, Z.H.; Li, C.; Scherr, E.M.; MacDiarmid, A.G.; Epstein, A.J., "Three Dimensionality of 'Metallic' States in Conducting Polymers: Polyaniline,"
Phys. Rev. Lett.,
66, 1745 (1991). • MacDiarmid, A.J.; Epstein, A.J., "The Concept of Secondary Doping as Applied to Polyaniline,"
Synth. Met.,
65, 103 (1994). • MacDiarmid, A.G., Zhou, Y., Feng, J., Furst, G.T., and Shedlow, A.M., "Isomers and Isomerization Processes in Poly-Anilines," ''Proc. ANTEC '99, Soc. Plastics Engr.'',
2, 1563 (1999). • MacDiarmid, A.G., Norris, I.D., Jones, J.W.E., El-Sherif, M.A., Yuan, J., Han, B. and Ko, F.K., "Polyaniline Based Chemical Transducers with Sub-micron Dimensions,"
Polymeric Mat. Sci. & Eng.,
83, 544 (2000). • Norris, I.D., Shaker, M.M., Ko, F.K., and MacDiarmid, A.G., "Electrostatic Fabrication of Ultrafine Conducting Fibers: Polyaniline/Polyethylene Oxide Blends,"
Synth. Met.,
114, 2 (2000). • MacDiarmid, A.G., Jones, J.W.E., Norris, I.D., Gao, J., Johnson, J.A.T., Pinto, N.J., Hone, J., Han, B., Ko, F.K., Okuzaki, H., and Llaguno, M., "Electrostatically-Generated Nanofibers of Electronic Polymers,"
Synth. Met.,
119, 27–30 (2001). • Shimano, J.Y., and MacDiarmid, A.G., "Phase Segregation in Polyaniline: A Dynamic Block Copolymer,"
Synth. Met.,
119, 365–366 (2001). • Wang, P.C., and MacDiarmid, A.G., "Dependency of Properties of In Situ Deposited Polypyrrole Films on Dopant Anion and Substrate Surface,"
Synth. Met.,
119, 267–268 (2001). • Hohnholz, D., and MacDiarmid, A.G., "Line Patterning of Conducting Polymers: New Horizons for Inexpensive, Disposable Electronic Devices,"
Synth. Met.,
121, 1327–1328 (2001). • Premvardhan, L., Peteanu, L.A., Wang, P.-C., and MacDiarmid, A.G., "Electronic Properties of the Conducting Form of Polyaniline from Electroabsorption Measurements,"
Synth. Met.,
116, 157–161 (2001). • MacDiarmid, A.G. "Twenty-five Years of Conducting Polymers".
Chem. Comm., 1–4 (2003). • Tanner, D.B.; Doll, G.L.; Rao, A.M.; Eklund, P.C.; Arbuckle, G.A.; MacDiarmid, A.G. "Optical properties of potassium-doped polyacetylene".
Synth. Met.,
141, 75–79 (2004). • Hohnholz, D.; Okuzaki, H.; MacDiarmid, A.G. "Plastic electronic devices through line patterning of conducting polymers".
Adv. Funct. Mater.,
15, 51–56 (2005). • Venancio, E.C; Wang, P-C.; MacDiarmid, A.G. "The Azanes: A Class of Material Incorporating Nano/Micro Self-Assembled Hollow Spheres Obtained By Aqueous Oxidative Polymerization of Aniline".
Synth. Met.,
156, 357 (2006). • MacDiarmid, A.G.; Venancio, E.C. "Agrienergy (Agriculture/Energy): What Does the Future Hold?”.
Experimental Biology and Medicine.,
231, 1212 (2006). ==Awards and honours==