Synthesis and characterization of conducting polymers with new architectural motifs

Chapter one has a brief discussion of polythiophene and the important factors to consider with polythiophene synthesis and characterization. In chapter two, a variety of polythiophene derivatives that incorporated 2,2'-biphenyl units into the polymer main chain were synthesized. The potential utility of the 2,2'-biphenyl unit as a scaffold to facilitate the t-n interactions between thiophene oligomers was explored. The linkage of the thiophene to the biphenyl was varied between the a- or O-positions to assess how this variable affected the overall properties of the resulting polymers. The n-linked thiophene monomers produced highly cross-linked polymers and the electroactivity of these polymers depended on the length of the thiophene fragment in the corresponding monomer. The a-linked thiophene monomers produced segmented linear conjugated polymers and the polymers' segmentation dominated the resulting electroactivity. A model study demonstrated that through-space interactions between the oligothiopene fragments of the 2,2'-biphenyl monomers did occur. In chapter three, a synthetic scheme was developed to generate 2,2'-biphenyl monomers with long alkyl chains from which soluble polymers could be generated.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemistry.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Byrne, Paul D. (Paul David)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Timothy M. Swager.

• Chemistry.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/36254
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/36254

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/36254