Abstract
Abstract This work reports the spectroelectrochemical and electrical behavior of electropolymerized donor-acceptor like (D-A) copolymer films, based on 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) and beta-substituted electron-acceptor thiophenes. Initially, the copolymer films were deposited on indium tin oxide substrates, which spectroelectrochemistry measurements were carried out with an UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Hence, it was possible to observe the electrochromic properties of these materials, visualizing the color changing towards different potentials applied. The experiments have shown that these D-A like copolymers presented good electrochromic properties, such as optical contrast, coloration efficiency, and switching times. Additionally, films prepared on a platinum working electrode were investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, which has shown the electrical behavior of those copolymers and their potential as candidates to capacitive devices building. Therefore, the combination of electron-donor EDOT with those electron-acceptor monomers is indeed a useful strategy to tailoring and fine-tuning the physicochemical properties of polythiophenes with innovative applications.
Highlights
The polythiophene semiconductor materials have been massively studied for applications as active layer in organic-electronic devices[1,2], and their derivatives have booth environmental and thermic stability, as well good optoelectronic properties, allowing the uses in electrochromic devices[3,4,5,6], organic photovoltaic devices[7,8,9], solar cells[10,11,12], organic light-emitting diodes[13,14,15], rechargeable batteries[16,17,18,19], among several others
After the analysis of the spectroelectrochemical curves, it can be observed that PEDOT and copolymers films presented an absorption band in the high-energy side of the spectrum when in their reduced state
As we apply the shifts of potential, the energetic states of the polymer change that is corroborated by the quenching of the transition between the valence band (VB) and conducting band (CB), to the appearance of a band near to the infrared region
Summary
The polythiophene semiconductor materials have been massively studied for applications as active layer in organic-electronic devices[1,2], and their derivatives have booth environmental and thermic stability, as well good optoelectronic properties, allowing the uses in electrochromic devices[3,4,5,6], organic photovoltaic devices[7,8,9], solar cells[10,11,12], organic light-emitting diodes[13,14,15], rechargeable batteries[16,17,18,19], among several others. The correlation and influence of the monomer structure under the material electrochromic properties can be verified, on the work of Dyer et al.[23] Such investigation showed that for D-A based polymers, it might be possible to build multicolored electrochromic devices with high efficiency, whose color change follows the composition and photoelectrochemical properties of the material. Nowadays, it can be found a considerable number of publications concerning the D-A-like copolymers with different substituted thiophenes[9,24], which makes it very interesting to put efforts on this research line
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