High-Quality Conducting Polymers Electrosynthesized From Several Fused Ring Aromatic Compounds

Electrochemical polymerization had been proved to be one of the most useful approaches for conducting polymer synthesis with several advantages. High-quality inherently conducting polymers prepared using fused ring aromatic compounds as monomers by electrochemical polymerization had attracted great attention in recent years. It is well known that boron trifluoride diethyl etherate (BFEE) solution is a middle strong Lewis acid. It is also a better electrolyte for the electrosyntheses of high quality conducting polymers from various aromatic monomers, such as thiophene, benzene and their derivatives. This dissertation focused on the electrosyntheses of high-quality conducting polymers from indole in pure BFEE, polybenzofuran from mixed electrolytes of BFEE and poly(ethylene glycol) oligomers, and polycarbazole from BFEE and diethyl ether. And the electrochemical copolymerization of indole and 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene was also investigated in acetonitrile.1. High-quality free-standing polyindole (PIn) films with conductivity of 10^-1 S cm^-1 were synthesized electrochemically by direct oxidation of indole in pure BFEE. The oxidation potential of indole in this medium was measured to be only 0.86 V vs. SCE. Structural studies show that the polymerization of indole ring occurred at 2,3 position. Fluorescent spectral studies indicate that PIn is a good blue-light emitter.2. Visible-light transparent high-quality substrate-supported poly(benzofuran) (PBF) film with conductivity of 10^-2 S cm^-1 had been successfully electrosynthesized by direct anodic oxidation of benzofuran in BFEE containing 10% poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with molar mass of 400 (by volume).