Organic Insulators to Superconductors,
Organic Materials: From Insulator to Superconductor
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What lies behind the superconductivity of organic materials, such as polyacenes
(anthracene) and fullerenes
(C60)? Professor Philip
Phillips believes that a clue might be provided by the electron-phonon coupling—the
"glue" that binds electrons into superconducting Cooper pairs. The electron-phonon
coupling constant for a series of organic semiconductors is shown as a function
of the number of p-electrons associated with their
carbon rings.
A more complete discussion
of this topic, see P.W. Phillips, "Organic materials: From insulator to
superconductor," Nature 406, 687–688 (August 17, 2000).