Design And Synthesis Of Electroactive Polymers Containing Oligoaniline And Research Of Their Properties

Due to the special and interesting properties of conjugated polymers (e.g. polyacetylene, polythiophene, polyaniline, etc.), they can be widely applied in lightweight batteries, electrochromic display devices, light-emitting diodes, optical switches, etc. However, as conventional polymers, these conjugated polymers have defects in the molecular weight distribution, conjugated length and structure. The properties of the conjugated polymers are therefore the statistic averages of each structure. This renders the difficulty of controlling the properties of materials through tailoring of their molecular structure. In comparison, monodispersed conjugated oligomers, which have step-by-step increasing size of theπ-system, can establish detailed structure-property relationship for corresponding polymers. On the other hand, monodispersed conjugated oligomers themselves are a kind of conductive materials. In order to spread its application, recent years, people do a lot of research to compose the oligomer with other special materials. Considering the above points, the investigations on producing new special materials containing conductive oligomer provide the foundation for the development of the application of conductive polymers.In this paper, we synthesized a series of monomers containing oligoaniline. By using them, we synthesized a series of polymers which contained oligoaniline in the main or side chain. The preparative processes are recorded as below: 1. Synthesis and characterization of a side-chain electroactive poly (aryl ether ketone)We synthesized a monomer containing parent aniline tetramer in the side chain through nucleophilic substitution. By using it, we synthesized a new electroactive poly (aryl ether ketone) containing electroactive segment in the side chain. We found that it had good thermal stability and electrical properties.2. Synthesis and characterization of soluble electroactive poly (aryl ether ketone) containing oligoaniline in the main chainWe synthesized a monomer containing phenyl-capped aniline tetramer in the main chain via nucleophilic substitution and oxidative coupling. By using it, we synthesized two soluble electroactive poly (aryl ether ketone) containing oligoaniline in the main chain. The introduction of nitrile groups and sulfonate groups improved the solubility. Furthermore, we found that the nitrile groups improved the solubility and dielectric properties of the electroactive poly (aryl ether ketone). The sulfonate groups strengthened the intermolecular force between polymer segments and therefore enhanced the thermal stability.3. Synthesis and characterization of electroactive poly (aryl ether ether nitrile) containing oligoaniline in the main chainWe synthesized a monomer containing phenyl-capped oligoaniline and nitrile groups in the main chain. Comparing to the monomer containing phenyl-capped oligoaniline in the main chain we synthesized earlier, it has excellent solubility and the synthetic process was much easier. By using this monomer, we synthesized a new electroactive poly (aryl ether ether nitrile). This new polymer has excellent processing performance and could be taken into actually use in the future.4. Synthesis and characterization of electroactive hyperbranched poly (aryl ether ketone) and poly (aryl ether ether nitrile)We synthesized two different electroactive hyperbranched polymers using two different methods. By way of oxidative coupling, we synthesized the electroactive hyperbranched poly (aryl ether ketone). By using nucleophilic substitution, we synthesized the hyperbranched poly (aryl ether ether nitrile). Comparing the properties of the two polymer we synthesized, the advantages and shortages of the different synthetic processes would be understood.