Plastic magnets could be used in computer hardware such as disc drives, as well as in medical devices such as pacemakers and cochlear implants, where the organic material is more likely to be biocompatible than its metallic counterparts.
[citation needed] PANiCNQ is plastic magnet made of a combination of emeraldine-based polyaniline (PANi), and tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ).
It was created in 2004 at the University of Durham by Pakistan born scientist Naveed A. Zaidi and colleagues, and it was the first magnetic polymer to function at room temperature.
The magnetic properties arise from the fully pi-conjugated nitrogen-containing backbone combined with molecular charge transfer side groups.
Green laser light reversed the effect somewhat by decreasing the material's magnetism to 60 percent of its normal level.