The results of recent studies of the electronic properties of polysilanes are reviewed. The electronic states can be described by the Huckel model if coulomb interactions are included using the Pariser-Parr-Pople approximation. The long polymer chains appear to be divided into random length, short, ordered segments by conformational defects, with the energy of the excited states depending on the length of the segments. In isolated polymer chains energy is transferred from high-energy, short segments to longer, lower energy segments, but the distance and time during which transfers take place is very limited. On solid films the excitons become highly mobile and remain mobile thrroughout their lifetime, even at low temperatures. Holes are quite mobile in solid films and the characteristics of transport are the same as those of charge carrier transport in molecularly doped polymer films.
