Tuning the painter's palette: subtle steric effects on spectra and colour in conjugated electrochromic polymers

Abstract

A series of vibrantly coloured π-conjugated electrochromic polymers (ECPs) were designed and synthesized with the goal of extracting structure–property relationships from subtle changes in steric strain or relaxation.

New Roll‐to‐Roll Processable PEDOT‐Based Polymer with Colorless Bleached State for Flexible Electrochromic Devices

“…[12][13][14][15][16][17] Furthermore, ECPs feature a wide range of vivid colors, response times in the range of seconds, and light transmittance change over 60%. [3,6,7,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] Other materials, such as multichromophoric polymers, can actually offer suitable bleached and colored states, but require elaborate synthesis routes and have an electrochemical operating window, which poses serious stability problems. The bandgap between the highest occupied π-electron band and the lowest unoccupied band determines the EC properties like color and color change.…”

“…The bandgap between the highest occupied π-electron band and the lowest unoccupied band determines the EC properties like color and color change. [29,35,36] Strategies presented in the literature to improve color neutrality in the bleached state show that a reduction of the absorption in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum can be achieved through a bathochromic shift of the polaronic and bipolaronic bands. [3,6,11,[18][19][20][21][22][23] A drawback of most ECPs is the lack of a highly transmissive and fully colorless bleached state.…”

Aqueous electrosynthesis of an electrochromic material based water-soluble EDOT-MeNH2 hydrochloride

“…For further improving electrochromic performance of PEDOT and its derivatives, researches therefore designed a series of strategies including modify the structure through introducing substituents, constructing network film through secondary polymerization, changing the polymeric solvent−electrolyte systems and something like that [10][11][12][13]. For example, Reynolds's [14][15][16] and Havinga's [17] groups have reported the first neutralstate solution contained PEDOT derivatives, which were obtained by the method of introduction of solubilizing side chains to the ethylenedioxy bridge of PEDOT.…”

Templateless electrodeposition of conducting polymer nanotubes on mesh substrates for high water adhesion

“…For example, the polymerization of aniline in the presence of an oxidant such FeCl 3 or ammonium persulfate, led to superhydrophobic dandelion-like structures [22], diamond structures [23] or star-shape structures [24] in the presence of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, sodium heptafluorobutyrate and lithium triflate, respectively. It is also possible to induce the growth of structured materials directly on substrates using various processes including preferential growth [25], grafting [26], plasma polymerization [27], vapor phase polymerization [28] and electropolymerization [29]. In the electropolymerization, a monomer is oxidized using a potentiostat/galvanostat to form the polymer, which is directly deposited on the working electrode in a uniform film.…”

“…In the electropolymerization, a monomer is oxidized using a potentiostat/galvanostat to form the polymer, which is directly deposited on the working electrode in a uniform film. Especially, the monomers of the 3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) combine exceptional polymerization capacity and optoelectronic properties [29,30] with the possibility to form a large range of structured materials. Many shapes were reported in the literature including nanoparticles, nanofibers, nanosheets, flowerlike and cauliflower-like structures [31][32][33].…”