Molecular design of dibenzothiophene /dibenzofuran hybrid thiophenes π-conjugated systems and comparative study of their electropolymerization and optoelectronic properties

Significance Statement 

Until now, the design and synthesis of novel chain structures is still central to the science and technology of conducting polymer electrochromic materials. As the close analogs of fluorene and carbazole, however, dibenzothiophene (DBT) and dibenzofuran (DBF) are scarcely employed as the synthons for the rational design of novel conjugated polymer structures and also very little is known about their-based hybrid polymers. Most recently, Lu and Xu in China synthesized a series of thiophenes end-capped dibenzothiophene/DBF compounds and systematically investigated their electropolymerization, as well as the optoelectronic properties of the corresponding polymer materials. Interestingly, it has been found that the resulting hybrid polymers featured the advantageous combination of dibenzothiophene/DBF host materials and polythiophenes, and exhibited unique electrochemical and electrochromic properties, holding promise for display applications. Further, dibenzothiophene/DBF as novel synthons could be further employed for rational design of excellent electrochromic polymers by matching with other typical π-conjugated units.

Molecular design of dibenzothiophene DBF hybrid thiophenes π-conjugated systems and comparative study of their electropolymerization and optoelectronic properties from comonomers to electrochromic polymers. Advances in Engineering

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journal Reference

Kaiwen Lin,   Shouli Ming,   Shijie Zhen,   Yao Zhao,  Baoyang Lu,  Jingkun Xu. Polym. Chem., 2015, 6, 4575-4587.

School of Pharmacy, Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University, Nanchang, China.
Abstract

A novel series of comonomers, DBT-Th, DBF-Th, DBT-3MeTh, DBF-3MeTh, DBT-3HexTh, and DBF-3HexTh were designed and electropolymerized to yield the corresponding electrochromic polymers. In related with core group, alkyl chain group of these polymers had a relatively significant influence on the redox behavior, band gap, neutral state colour, stability, and the electrochromic performance (optical contrast, CE, and switching time) of the system. Furthermore, all the polymer films displayed unique electrochromic characteristic with switching color from yellow to blue. Further kinetic results exhibited moderate to high optical contrasts (20-70%), high colouration efficiency (typically 170-370 cm2 C-1), and favorable switching time (0.8-9.4 s). Among them, the electrochromic performance of 3-hexylthiophene-end-capped polymers were superior to those with thiophene/3-methylthiophene as terminal groups.

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