Plastics usually conduct electricity so poorly that they are used to insulate electric cables. A newly discovered technique makes it possible to create a spectrum of plastics with metallic or even superconducting properties. By placing a thin film of metal onto a plastic sheet and mixing it into the polymer surface with an ion beam, an international team has shown that the method can be used to make cheap, strong, flexible and conductive plastic films. The team comprises Australian researchers led by Professor Paul Meredith and Associate Professor Ben Powell at the University of Queensland, and Associate Professor Adam Micolich of the UNSW School of Physics. This latest discovery reports experiments by former UQ Ph.D. student, Dr Andrew Stephenson. What the team has been able to do here is use an ion beam to tune the properties of a plastic film so that it conducts electricity like the metals used in the electrical wires themselves, and even to act as a superconductor and pass electric current without resistance if cooled to low enough temperature. To demonstrate a potential application of this new material, the team produced electrical resistance thermometers that meet industrial standards. Tested against an industry standard platinum resistance thermometer, it had comparable or even superior accuracy. This material can take all the desirable aspects of polymers - such as mechanical flexibility, robustness and low cost, and add good electrical conductivity. The most exciting part about the discovery is how precisely the film's ability to conduct or resist the flow of electrical current can be tuned. It opens up a broad potential for useful applications. These new materials can be easily produced with equipment commonly used in the microelectronics industry and are vastly more tolerant of exposure to oxygen compared to standard semiconducting polymers. Combined, these advantages may give ion beam processed polymer films a bright future in the on-going development of soft materials for plastic electronics applications - a fusion between current and nextgen technology.