Electrosyntheses of free-standing poly(thiophene-3-acetic acid) film in mixed electrolytes of boron trifluoride diethyl etherate and trifluoroacetic acid

Abstract

High quality free-standing poly(thiophene-3-acetic acid) (PTAA), a water-soluble polythiophene derivative, was successfully electrosynthesized in boron trifluoride diethyl etherate (BFEE) + 25% (by volume) trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) at lower potential (0.38 V versus Pt). The carboxyl group makes PTAA highly soluble in water, facilitating its potential application as a blue-light-emitting material. PTAA films with conductivity of 7 S cm −1 obtained from this medium showed better redox activity and thermal stability. The structure and morphology of the polymer were studied by UV-Vis, FT-IR, 1 H-NMR spectra and scanning electron microscopy, respectively.

Optimal strategy based on radiation chemistry for facile and direct synthesis of poly(3-thiophene acetic acid) polymers in water and dichloromethane

“…The molecular weight and the polydispersity index obtained in this work in the case of radiosynthesized PTAA polymers are not far from those obtained by He et al (M w = 2600 g mol À1 with a polydispersity index of 1.59) in the case of PTAA polymers electrochemically prepared. 56 However, the obtained molecular weight remains far from those of PTAA polymers already prepared by chemical methods (M w between 0.41 Â 10 4 and 1.7 Â 10 4 g mol À1 ). 37,38,57,58 Evidently, such a difference between the obtained molecular weights should result from the quite different (radiolytical, electrochemical and chemical) approaches used for PTAA synthesis.…”