Thiophene Ended ϵ‐Caprolactone Conducting Copolymers and their Electrochromic Properties

ϵ‐Caprolactone was polymerized by ring‐opening polymerization (ROP), using thiophene methanol as the initiator and stannous octoate as the catalyst to yield poly(ϵ‐caprolactone) with a thiophene end group. Homopolymerization of thiophene functionalized poly (ϵ‐caprolactone) (PCL) was achieved by a constant current electrolysis method. Copolymerizations of PCL with thiophene and pyrrole were achieved in acetonitrile (ACN)‐tetrabutylammonium tetrafluoroborate (TBAFB) solvent‐electrolyte couple via constant potential electrolysis. Characterization of the samples were performed by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), cyclic voltammetry (CV), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Electrical conductivities were measured by the four‐probe technique. Spectroelectrochemical behavior of PCL/PTh film, which was deposited on ITO‐glass, was investigated by UV‐Vis Spectrophotometer. Furthermore, it is found to be an anodically coloring copolymer that electrochemically switches between gray‐blue oxidized state and pale red reduced state, exhibiting electrochromic behavior.

[1]  J. Reynolds,et al.  High‐Quality Electrochromic Polythiophenes via BF3·Et2O Electropolymerization , 2003 .

[2]  Y. Yagcı,et al.  Synthesis and electroactivity of pyrrole end-functionalized poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline) , 2001 .

[3]  John R. Reynolds,et al.  In situ colorimetric analysis of electrochromic polymers and devices , 2000 .

[4]  Y. Yagcı,et al.  Block copolymers of thiophene‐capped poly(methyl methacrylate) with pyrrole , 1999 .

[5]  A. Vadivel Murugan,et al.  Electrochemically synthesised conducting polymeric materials for applications towards technology in electronics, optoelectronics and energy storage devices , 1999 .

[6]  Y. Yagcı,et al.  Synthesis of conducting H-type polysiloxane-polypyrrole block copolymers , 1998 .

[7]  Devendra Kumar,et al.  Advances in conductive polymers , 1998 .

[8]  Tulay Yilmaz,et al.  Synthesis of a hexafluoropropylidene‐bis(phthalic anhydride)‐based polyimide and its conducting polymer composites with polypyrrole , 1997 .

[9]  John R. Reynolds,et al.  Multiply Colored Electrochromic Carbazole-Based Polymers , 1997 .

[10]  John R. Reynolds,et al.  Soluble Alkyl-Substituted Poly(ethylenedioxythiophenes) as Electrochromic Materials , 1996 .

[11]  A. Albertsson,et al.  Recent Advances in Ring-Opening Polymerization of Lactones and Related Compounds , 1995 .

[12]  L. Toppare,et al.  Graft copolymers and composites of poly(methyl methacrylate) and polypyrrole Part I , 1995 .

[13]  C. K. Chiang,et al.  Electrical Conductivity in Doped Polyacetylene. , 1977 .

[14]  G. Madras,et al.  Thermal degradation of poly (ε-caprolactone) , 2003 .

[15]  P. Dubois,et al.  Novel macromolecular architectures based on aliphatic polyesters : Relevance of the coordination-insertion ring-opening polymerization , 1999 .

[16]  J. Stenger-Smith.  Intrinsically electrically conducting polymers. Synthesis, characterization, and their applications , 1998 .