Conductive copolymer and a method of making thereof
A conducting polymer which may have one redox couple and/or enhanced redox capacity. The polymer is a copolymer prepared by electropolymerizing a mixture of monomers.
1. A copolymer, comprising a polymerization product of:
a first monomer represented by formula (I); and
a second monomer represented by formula (II);
wherein a mole ratio of the second monomer to the first monomer is from 1:2 to 1:4, and formulae (I) and (II) are:
where X is sulfur, and Y is selenium;
R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 , are independently a hydrogen, a hydroxy, a thiol, a fluoro, a chloro, a bromo, an iodo, a nitro, a cyano, an amino, a carboxy, an optionally substituted alkyl, an optionally substituted cycloalkyl, an optionally substituted arylalkyl, an optionally substituted aryl, an optionally substituted alkanoyl, or an optionally substituted aroyl; and
R 5 , R 6 , and each of R 7 and R 8 are independently a hydrogen, a fluoro, a chloro, a bromo, an iodo, a nitro, a cyano, a carboxy, an optionally substituted alkyl, an optionally substituted cycloalkyl, an optionally substituted arylalkyl, an optionally substituted aryl, an optionally substituted alkanoyl, or an optionally substituted aroyl.
2. The copolymer of claim 1 , wherein the mole ratio of the second monomer to the first monomer is 1:2.
3. The copolymer of claim 1 , wherein the mole ratio of the second monomer to the first monomer is 1:4.
4. The copolymer of claim 1 , wherein the first monomer is:
5. The copolymer of claim 1 , wherein the compound represented by formula (II) is
6. The copolymer of claim 1 , wherein a redox activity of the copolymer decreases by less than 15% after the copolymer is subjected to 20-30 voltage cycles.
7. The copolymer of claim 1 , wherein the copolymer is free of reacted non-conjugated monomers.
8. The copolymer of claim 1 , wherein the copolymer is free of a non-conjugated polymeric block.
9. The copolymer of claim 1 , wherein a band gap energy value of the copolymer is in a range of 1.9-2.1 eV.
10. The copolymer of claim 1 , wherein an electrical conductivity of the copolymer is in a range of 0.3-0.4 S/cm.
11. A method for making the copolymer of claim 1 , the method comprising:
mixing the first monomer and the second monomer in a solution comprising a solvent and an electrolyte in the presence of a working electrode, a counter electrode, and a reference electrode; and
applying a potential to the resulting solution thereby polymerizing the first monomer and the second monomer.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the potential is applied for 0.5-10 minutes.
13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the potential is in a range of 1.45-1.55 V.
14. The method of claim 11 , wherein an area of the working electrode is in a range of 0.05-1 cm 2 .
15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the electrolyte is tetrabutylammonium tetrafluoroborate.
16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the electrolyte is present at a concentration in a range of 0.01-1 M in the solution.
17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the solvent is acetonitrile.
18. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first monomer is:
19. The method of claim 11 , wherein the compound represented by formula (II) is: