Y. Xue et al.
Polymer159(2018)150–156
which is the key method to control the property of the material as well
as their device performance [6,13–15]. Cirpan et al. presented the
multicolored electrochromic polymers via introducing TT as donor
units in the benzotriazole (BTz) based donor-acceptor-donor (DAD)
type polymers [16]. Meng et al. reported a neutral green electrochromic
material with excellent electrochromic performance benefiting from
modified TT unit as an unconventional donor [17]. Therefore, to full
utilize the structural advantage of PTT to explore high-performances
electrochromic materials, in this work, we embedded famous EDOT
segments into PTT backbones at the molecular level. PEDOT, the re-
presentative of conductive polymer materials, have been confirmed its
superiority in electrochromic area not only their excellent electronic
properties, remarkable stability, and favorable electrochromic beha-
vior, but EDOT itself could be employed as the building block for
for stirring 97 h. The crude product was added to the mixture solution
of LiOH (1 mol L−1 50 mL) and THF (150 mL) (1/3 v/v) and added
0.1 M HCl (15 mL) solution after reflux for 6 h to get the solid powder.
The solid powder was added to quinolone (4 mL) solution with Cu
powder (0.1 g) stirring at 260 °C for 1 h. The crude product was purified
by column chromatography (petroleum ether (PE)) and dried in vacuo
to give pure TT as white solid. (1.9 g 28%). 1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3)
δ 7.37 (d, J = 4.9 Hz, 2H), 7.26–7.24 (m, 2H). Anal. Calcd for C6H4S2:
C, 51.34, H, 2.85 and S, 44.21. Found: C, 51.36, H, 2.56 and S, 44.23.
2,5-Bis(thieno[3,2-b]thiophen-2-yl)-2-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene
(TT-EDOT-TT). n-BuLi (5.4 mL, 1.6 M) was added in 25 mL THF solu-
tion with TT (1.0 g, 7.0 mmol) at −78 °C and reacted 1 h. SnBu3Cl
(1.8 mL, 10.8 mmol) was added in mixed solution at −40 °C and slowly
warmed to 0 °C gives crude product tributyl(thieno[3,2-b]thiophen-2-
yl)stannane, which was used directly in the next further step without
purification. Crude product was added in toluene solution containing
Br-EDOT-Br (1.33 g, 4.3 mmol) and Pd(PPh3)2Cl2 (0.50 g, 0.70 mmol).
After reacted at 100 °C for 24 h, it was separated by chromatography on
silica gel (CH2Cl2: PE, 1:5) to afford 1.29 g TT-EDOT-TT as yellow solid
(0.83 g 44.9%). 1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3) δ 7.44 (s, 2H), 7.33 (d,
J = 5.2 Hz, 2H), 7.23 (s, 2H), 4.44 (s, 4H). Anal. Calcd for C18H10O2S5:
C, 51.62, H, 2.40%, O, 38.22 and S, 7.66. Found: C, 52.27, H, 2.41, O,
36.63 and S, 7.42.
multifunctional semiconducting materials [18–21]. Accordingly,
a
TT end-capped EDOT oligomer (TT-EDOT-TT) in acetonitrile-Bu4NPF6
electrolytes. Difference from structure, physico-chemical properties,
energy gap, micromorphology, and photoelectrochemical behaviors
have been investigated, in addition to a systematic exploration of its
2. Experimental section
2.1. Materials
2.3. Electrochemical measurements
3-Bromothiophene (99%; Energy Chemical), lithium diisopropyla-
mide (LDA, 98%; Sigma Aldrich), N-formylpiperidine (99%; Energy
Chemical), ethyl 2-sulfanylacetate (99%; Energy Chemical), quinolone
(98%; Energy Chemical), EDOT (98%; Sigma Aldrich), n-butyllithium
(n-BuLi, 1.6 M; Energy Chemical), tributylstannyl chloride (SnBu3Cl,
98%; J&K Chemical), N-bromosuccinimide (NBS, 98%; Energy
Chemical) and transdichlorobis(triphenyl-phosphine)palladium(II) (Pd
(PPh3)2Cl2, 98%; 15% Pd, Sigma-Aldrich) were stored at 4 °C and used
without further purication. Tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate
(Bu4NPF6, 99%; Shanghai Vita Chemical) was dried under vacuum at
60 °C for 24 h before use. Dichloromethane (CH2Cl2, 99.9%; J&K
Chemical), and acetonitrile (ACN, 99.9%; J&K Chemical) were all used
directly without further purification. Tetrahydrofuran (THF) was dis-
tilled over sodium (Na) under N2 before used. Other reagents were all
analytical grade and used directively.
All electrochemical measurements were performed using a Versa
Stat 3 electrochemical workstation under computer control. The elec-
trochemical properties of the oligomers and polymers were evaluated in
a three-electrode cell consisting of a working electrode (Pt), a reference
electrode (Ag) and an auxiliary electrode (Pt). Both electrodes wires for
Pt and Ag/AgCl of 1 mm diameter. All electrochemical experiments
were carried out in 5 mL ACN−Bu4NPF6 (0.10 mol L−1) electrolyte
solution with 0.6 mM monomer. We determined the polymerization
behavior of the monomers by cyclic voltammetry and obtained the
superior quality polymer film by optimization of electrical conditions.
2.4. Preparation and characterization of polymers
Polymers were fabricated by electrochemical polymerization of
monomers to deposit onto the surface of the Pt wires (working elec-
trodes) or ITO (3.0 cm × 2.0 cm) glass electrodes. After washed with a
large number of ACN solvent before a series of characterization were
performed. The electrochemical behaviors and redox stability of the
polymer-modified working electrodes were studied by cyclic voltam-
metry in blank ACN−Bu4NPF6 system. The resulting polymers were
employed for FT-IR characterization with samples in KBr pellets. The
surface morphologies of polymer films deposited onto the surface of
ITO glasses were investigated by field emission scanning electron mi-
croscope (FESEM).
2.2. Syntheses
Thieno[3,2-b]thiophene (TT). Its synthesis was referenced the four-
step method according to previous reports by us and Fuller et al.
[22,23]. Lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) (27.4 mL 218.9 mmol) was
added in the 100 mL of dry THF solution with 3-bromothiophene (7.9 g,
48.5 mmol) and N-formylpiperidine (6.1 mL 54.8 mmol) was added
after stirred 30 min at 0 °C. After simple purification, the crude product
was add to the N,N-dimethylformamide (100 mL) solution containing
ethyl 2-sulfanylacetate (4.12g 34.3 mmol) and K2CO3 (8.6 g 62.2 mmol)
Table 1
Spectroscopic and electronic properties of oligomers and polymers.
λonset(nm)
Lexp/LDFT(eV)
Eg
opt
Sample
TT
262, 271, 281
485
288
676
450
645
−6.10/−5.85
−5.06/−
−1.79/−0.73
−3.20/−
4.31
1.83
2.74
1.92
5.12
–
PTT
TT-EDOT-TT
P(TT-EDOT-TT)
270, 315, 397
480
−5.45/−4.79
−5.16/−
−2.71/−1.76
−3.24/−
3.04
–
a
b
c
d
Measured in CH2Cl2.
Hexp and Lexp are the HOMO and LUMO levels calculated using formula Hexp = −(Eonset + 4.8) (eV) and Lexp = (Hexp + Egopt) (eV).
Estimated values from the UV-vis absorption edge of the thin films (Egopt = 1240/λonset eV).
Calculated using formula Eg DFT = LDFT− HDFT (HDFT and LDFT are the HOMO and LUMO levels calculated at B3LYP/6-31G level of theory based on gas-phase
geometry).
151