Conductive polymers（聚合物，高分子） are plastic materials with high electrical conductivity that promise to revolutionize a wide range of products including TV displays, solar cells, and biomedical sensors¹. A team of McGill University researchers have now reported how to visualize² and study the process of energy transport along one single conductive polymer molecule³ at a time, a key step towards bringing these exciting new applications to market. "We may easily study energy transport in a cable as thick as a hair, but imagine studying this process in a single polymer molecule, whose thickness is one-millionth of that!" said Dr. Gonzalo Cosa of McGill's Department of Chemistry, lead researcher.

Working in collaboration⁴ with（合作） Dr. Isabelle Rouiller of McGill's Department of Anatomy⁵ and Cell Biology, the team used state-of-the-art optical and electron microscopes and were able to entrap⁶（使陷入，欺骗） the polymer molecules⁷ into vesicles – tiny sacs smaller than a human body cell. The researchers visualized⁸ their ability to transport energy in various conformations.

"This research is novel because we are able to look at energy transport in individual polymer molecules rather than obtaining measurements arising from a collection of billions of them. It's like looking at the characteristics of a single person rather than having to rely on census⁹（调查，普查） data for the entire world population," Cosa explains. Conductive polymers are long organic molecules typically referred to as nanowires. Components¹⁰ along the polymer backbone¹¹ successfully pass energy between each other when the polymer is collapsed¹² (coiled within itself), but the process is slowed down when the polymer backbone is extended. A greater understanding of how this process works will enable us to develop a range of technologies in the future."

The studies are critical to applications in daily life such as sensors involving the detection and the differentiation¹³ of cells, pathogens（病原体） , and toxins¹⁴. They may also help in the future to develop hybrid¹⁵（混合的） organic-inorganic light harvesting materials for solar cells.