Fadi Alakhras

Electrochemical behavior and conductivity measurements of electropolymerized selenophene-based copolymers

Abstract Electrochemical copolymerization of selenophene and thiophene was performed at a constant electrode potential. The obtained homopolymer films and copolymers were studied and characterized with cyclic voltammetry and conductivity measurements, from which conductivity values around 13.35 S · cm-1 were determined. The influence of the applied electropolymerization potential and the monomer feed ratio of selenophene and thiophene on the copolymers properties was investigated. The obtained copolymers showed good stability of the redox activity in an acetonitrile-based electrolyte solution. At higher polymerization potentials and at higher concentrations of thiophene in the feed, more thiophene units were incorporated into the copolymer chain. The conductivities of the copolymers were between those of homopolymers, implying that oxidation of both monomers was possible and the copolymer chains might accordingly be composed of both selenophene and thiophene units.

Spectroelectrochemistry of Intrinsically Conducting Selenophene-3- Chlorothiophene Copolymers

The electrochemical copolymerization between selenophene and 3-chlorothiophene monomers was successfully realized. The influence of the applied polymerization potential and the monomer feed ratio on the copolymer properties were investigated, and the results revealed that the obtained polymer films strongly depended on the polymerization conditions. The obtained copolymers showed good redox stability in acetonitrile-based electrolyte solution. Band gap energy of the homo- and copolymer films was estimated and the values were between 1.95-2.11 eV. The electrical conductivity measurements of selenophene-3-chlorothiophene copolymers were successfully achieved using a four-probe technique and generally increased with increasing temperature. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) characterization disclosed that the bands of homopolymers were retained in the spectra of copolymers with typical assignments suggesting that α-positions in the polymer chains were involved in the polymerization.