Electrochemical preparation of polythiophene in acetonitrile solution with boron fluoride–ethyl ether as the electrolyte

Abstract

AbstractPolythiophene (PTh) films were prepared by the electrochemical polymerization of thiophene in acetonitrile solution with boron fluoride–ethyl ether (BFEE) as the electrolyte. The electropolymerization processes were investigated by cyclic voltammetry. The onset potential of the electropolymerization decreased dramatically with increasing BFEE proportion in the solution. The free‐standing PTh films obtained were characterized by Founier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X‐ray photoelectron microscopy. The influence of BFEE on the morphology and conductivity of the PTh films was also examined. The binary solvent solution consisted of acetonitrile (10 vol %) and BFEE (90 vol %), which turned out to be the optimal electrosythesis system, in which a current density of 1 mA/cm2 and a monomer concentration of 50 mM were the optimal conditions for electropolymerization. The PTh film obtained under the optimized conditions had a high tensile strength of 60 MPa and a high conductivity of 153 S/cm. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 90: 940–946, 2003