Synthesis of Novel Donor-Acceptor Polymer Blends and Their Properties

Abstract

A novel kind of self-doped conducting polymer blend has been produced. Poly[3-(2-methoxyethoxy)-ethoxymethylthiophene-2,5-diyl] was chosen as the electron-rich (donor) conducting polymer and poly (3-nitropyridine-2,5-diyl) (PPyr-3-NO2) was chosen as the electron-deficient (acceptor) polymer. The latter was synthesised following a revised literature method. The dopant-free conjugated polymers were dissolved in N,N-dimethylformamide and were mixed together in electrically-equivalent proportions. Solvent-cast films of the resulting blends were studied by UV and ESR spectrometry and by cyclic voltammetry, and evidence of charge transfer included the increased extent of conjugation observed by UV analysis, increased number of unpaired electrons found by ESR analysis, increased electronic conductivity and the shifts in the doping and dedoping peaks in cyclic voltammetry.