Acknowledgements

I have received immeasurable support and encouragement from my parents and brothers, friends, and co-workers. I could never have completed this book without them. I thank God for sending them to support me on this journey. This acknowledgements section could never be complete without expressing my sincere gratitude to these individuals.

I will always be in permanent debt to each and every one of my cultural cowherd (brañeiros y vaqueiros) brothers from the Cantabric Mountains Range in the northern part of Spain, and in particular to those from my hometown, Palacios del Sil, where I spent my childhood. I am also in debt to my brañeiros ancestors that kept this isolated and hardy but efficient civilization frozen in time for centuries. They helped that eager boy to mature, while he enjoyed plants, flowers, animals, water springs, rain, snow, sunny days, storms, stars, and the sky and land. Breathing fresh and clean air from the mountain tops and listening every night to old stories around a fire helped me fall in love with nature forever. That civilization of transhumance shepherds has dissolved into the wind over the last 30 years but my childhood probably helped me grow as an independent researcher, keeping in mind that the scientific literature is just focused on a small fraction of the truth sought. We should always be ready to think outside of the boxes that others have built.

Finding a way through a fog-filled forest under a severe storm is a difficult task if you don’t have solid reference points. I was blessed when I found my way to Don José Escudero, my primary school teacher. Had it not been for him, I would never have become a researcher and would most likely have spent my life as a coal miner, as many of my elementary school fellows did. His incessant pressure on my parents and his help teaching me as a free student for three years (exams were taken annually during a day in June at the secondary school located 50 km from my town) gave me the possibility to combine my student and shepherd duties. I was quite fortunate to find some good teachers in my life, but Don José Escudero remains my master and milestone.

Some days with grazing cows and goats were long when I was growing up. The temptation to climb the surrounding mountains was invariably there and I learned that behind a mountain you will always find new mountains and, in between them, you will find new forests, rivers, lakes and rocks. I learned that exploring is good—a good lesson for a future scientist.

I am both scientifically and personally indebted to many people that I have met on my journey. Dr M. Sánchez Cruz from the Rocasolano Institute of the CSIC was my thesis supervisor, who revealed to me the fascinating and surprising ways of electrochemical kinetics. Prof. Parsons, the editor for many years of the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, encouraged me by correcting several of my first papers and giving me useful experimental advice. Without the heartening effort of this personally involved editor, I may not have pursued my career as a scientist. After finishing my Ph.D. I moved to the newly founded Faculty of Chemistry in San Sebastian (Basque Country), which was to become devoted to the development of polymer science and polymer technologies. After several hard years organizing and delivering teaching activities I started a new research group, with the help of tenacious students, with the aim of combining my electrochemical background with polymers. This was at the beginning of the 1980s, when the first papers from the MacDiarmid, Diaz and Osada groups were published. By repeating the experimental results from Prof. Diaz’s papers on electropolymerization and the electrochemical characterization of the generated films, this fascinating journey was initiated. Without Prof. MacDiarmid’s and Osada’s encouraging comments, which they shared any time I had the chance to meet them (at least once per year), I probably would have moved to another polymeric field. Since then, tens of Ph.D. and Masters students have devoted their time and effort to develop most of the ideas here presented: my permanent gratitude is with all of them. Dr Melling has reviewed the original manuscript giving a lot of useful advice and comments, thanks Dan.

Finally, I must be thankful for the deep economic crisis that has affected Spain over the last five years: the number of students in my laboratory has dropped to one. The upside of this is that I finally got the time to write this book.

Without the unwavering emotional and spiritual support of my wife Ana, my sons Miguel and Juan, and my daughters-in-law, I would never have embarked on this journey, let alone complete it. Their constant support is the cornerstone of my life and I can never thank them enough.