Handbook of Polymers in Medicine, Masoud Mozafari,Narendra Pal Singh Chauhan, Editör, Woodhead Publishing Limited , Chennai, ss.305-325, 2023
Conductive polymers (CP) are conjugated macromolecular structures that can distribute or transmit electricity along their molecule chains due to their chemical structure. After being discovered in the mid-19th century, CPs have attracted the attention of many researchers and have become an important subject in the literature. Polyaniline, polythiophene, polypyrrole, and poly (3,4-ethylenedioxy thiophene) are main CPs with relevant advantages allow their use in medical applications including good electrical conductivity, good optical and thermal properties, easy processability and simple doping/dedoping chemistry, lightweight, and low cost. In this field, CPs are promising materials such as biosensors, bioactuators, neural electrodes, cardiovascular applications, drug delivery agents, tissue engineering, and wound-healing applications. However, in case of weak biocompatible and mechanical properties, they could be used as composites or blends. This chapter is aimed to examine the properties of CPs and their composites, conduction mechanism, and doping/dedoping processes and to explain the uses of CP-based materials in medical applications.