Fabrication of micro- and nanostructures from functionalized regioregular poly(3-alkylthiophenes)

Fabrications of microelectronics have inspired material scientists for decades. Conjugated polymers such as regioregular polythiophenes have demonstrated great potentials as active materials in chemosensors, microelectronics and electro-optics. A critical aspect of incorporating polythiophenes into these applications is their reproducible deposition onto different surfaces. 3-Substituents on regioregular polythiophenes not only improve the solubility and processability of the polymers but also introduce some interesting properties.; In this thesis, we have focused on functionalizing 3-substituents of polythiophenes using a post-polymerization functionalization method. The functionalized polymers have been used in fabricating nano- and microscale structures including layer by-layer assembly multilayers of poly(3-octanic thiophene) and poly(3-hexylammonium thiophene), micro-scale patterns of poly(3-dodecyl-3′-hexylthiol-5, 2′-bithiophene)s on gold coated glass slides and microstructures of poly (3-hexylthiophene)s on glass surfaces.; The efforts of incorporating poly(3-alkylthiophenes) in submicrometer electronics have been performed by synthesizing poly(3-alkylthiophenes) ending with thiol groups on both ends of polymer chains and poly(3-hexylthiophene)/gold-nanoparticle hybrid materials.; These studies have demonstrated that derivatives of regioregular polyalkylthiophenes can be readily synthesized and built into different desirable structures.