Abstract
There are many practical difficulties in direct adsorption of polymers onto nanocrystalline inorganic oxide surface such as Al2O3 and TiO2 mainly due to the insolubility of polymers in solvents or polymer agglomeration during adsorption process. As an alternative approach to the direct polymer adsorption, we propose surface-bound polymerization of pre-adsorbed monomers. 6-(3-Thienyl)hexanoic acid (THA) was used as a monomer for poly[3-(5-carboxypentyl)thiophene-2,5-diyl] (PTHA). PTHA-coated nanocrystalline TiO2/FTO glass electrodes were prepared by immersing THA-adsorbed electrodes in FeCl3 oxidant solution. Characterization by ultraviolet/visible/infrared spectroscopy and thermal analysis showed that the monolayer of regiorandom-structured PTHA was successfully formed from intermolecular bonding between neighbored THA surface-bound to TiO2. The anchoring functional groups (-COOH) of the surface-crawling PTHA were completely utilized for strong bonding to the surface of TiO2.
Highlights
Conducting polymers have attracted widespread academic and industrial research interest in the last two decades because of their potential applications in various fields such as light-emitting diodes, electrochromic devices, photovoltaic cells, anti-corrosion coatings, sensors, batteries, and supercapacitors [1,2,3]
Growth of PTHA or oligo-THA via surface-bound polymerization was traced by UV-vis absorption
Monomer molecules (THA) for surface-bound polymerization would be adsorbed at full coverage over TiO2 if the whole adsorption sites of TiO2 surface are occupied by polymer PTHA for polymer adsorption as the control
Summary
Conducting polymers have attracted widespread academic and industrial research interest in the last two decades because of their potential applications in various fields such as light-emitting diodes, electrochromic devices, photovoltaic cells, anti-corrosion coatings, sensors, batteries, and supercapacitors [1,2,3]. Carboxyl-functionalized thiophene monomer was adsorbed onto surface of nanocrystalline TiO2 electrodes. As a control to the polymer-adsorbed TiO2 electrodes obtained by polymerizing the surface-bound THA, poly [3-(5-carboxypentyl)thiophene-2,5-diyl] (PTHA, Rieke 4032) was directly adsorbed on the same TiO2 electrodes.
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