Recent progress on nanostructured conducting polymers and composites: synthesis, application and future aspects

Conducting polymers (CPs) have been widely investigated due to their extraordinary advantages over the traditional materials, including wide and tunable electrical conductivity, facile production approach, high mechanical stability, light weight, low cost and ease in material processing. Compared with bulk CPs, nanostructured CPs possess higher electrical conductivity, larger surface area, superior electrochemical activity, which make them suitable for various applications. Hybridization of CPs with other nanomaterials has obtained promising functional nanocomposites and achieved improved performance in different areas, such as energy storage, sensors, energy harvesting and protection applications. In this review, recent progress on nanostructured CPs and their composites is summarized from research all over the world in more than 400 references, especially from the last three years. The relevant synthesizing experiences are outlined and abundant application examples are illustrated. The approaches of production of nanostructured CPs are discussed and the efficacy and benefits of newest trends for the preparation of multifunctional nanomaterials/nanocomposites are presented. Mechanism of their electrical conductivity and the ways to tailor their properties are investigated. The remaining challenges in developing better CPs based nanomaterials are also elaborated.