Electrochemical copolymerization of thiophene derivatives; a precursor to photovoltaic devices

Kumar, Prajwal and Ranjith, K and Gupta, Satyajit and Ramamurthy, Praveen C (2011) Electrochemical copolymerization of thiophene derivatives; a precursor to photovoltaic devices. In: Electrochimica Acta, 56 (24). pp. 8184-8191.

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Abstract

This work presents an electrochemical technique for the polymerization and copolymerization of thiophene derivatives like 7,9-dithiophene-2yl-8H-cyclopenta[a]acenaphthalene-8-one and 3-hexylthiophene. The structural characterization of chemically synthesized monomers and electro-chemically synthesized polymers was carried out by nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Thermal characterizations indicate that copolymer has increased thermal stability than that of homopolymer. Morphological studies of the polymerized films carried out by scanning electron microscopy shows network structure of copolymer. Optical properties of the homopolymers and copolymer were studied by UV-visible spectrometer and it was observed that band gap of copolymer is less than the homopolymers. HOMO and LUMO levels, band gap values of the respective polymers were also calculated from the cyclic voltammetry technique with various scan rates. By the peak current obtained from various scan rates shows that all polymerization reactions are diffusion controlled process. Charge transfer resistances of polymers were determined using Nyquist plots. Conductivity of synthesized polymers shows higher conductivity for copolymer than homopolymers. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Electrochimica Acta
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Elsevier Science.
Keywords:	Conducting polymer;Cyclic voltammetry;Impedance; Electrochemical deposition;Copolymer
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Materials Engineering (formerly Metallurgy)
Date Deposited:	08 Nov 2011 11:51
Last Modified:	08 Nov 2011 11:51
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/41932

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