“Synthetic metals” and related polymeric materials have become a field of immense interest because of their versatile utilities in various research frontiers. This has led to rapidly expanding activities in the research on their material properties and applications. A deep understanding of the structure–property relationships of these materials is required before they can be successfully developed and used in devices. The area continues to expand with the discovery of increasingly new methods of polymer synthesis and scientific developments at the interfaces of supramolecular chemistry, nanotechnology, materials science, and physics. These functional conjugated polymers and materials hold great promise as solution-processable semiconductor materials for uses in organic optoelectronics (e.g., polymer light-emitting diodes, polymer solar cells, and polymer field-effect transistors), organic memory devices, and nanoscale electronic devices. Recent research developments in these growing areas were also covered on the International Conference on the Science and Technology of Synthetic Metals 2016 (ICSM2016) held in Guangzhou, China. Nowadays, ICSM has become the premiere venue for discussion of the latest developments in the areas of organic electronics and photonics—from synthesis to characterization, computational modeling, device fabrication, and real-world applications. In this topical section in Macromolecular Rapid Communications, a group of experts working on the experimental and theoretical aspects of the chemistry and physics of synthetic metals and their applications have made significant contributions. We hope that this section will serve as a good forum to highlight the latest advances in the field and will attract the attention of a wide audience in the community.
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