Recent results, part of an ongoing research programme aimed to develop synthetic methods which could be used to functionalise conducting polymers. are described. Among those methods are the copolymerization of aniline with substituted anilines and post-modification reactions of polyaniline, such as: electrophilic substitution, nucleophilic addition and coupling with diazonium salts. Some of those methods could be chemically or electrochemically controlled allowing a quantitative tailoring of the modification. The effect of the added functionalities on the electrochemical properties of the polymers is investigated using spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques. The extension of the synthetic methods to combinatorial modification of conductive polymers is also discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.