Hj. Fell et al., STRUCTURAL STUDIES OF POLY(DIMETHYL-TETRATHIOPHENE, AN INTERMEDIATE BETWEEN POLY(THIOPHENE) AND POLY(3-METHYLTHIOPHENE), Synthetic metals, 55(1), 1993, pp. 420-425
Grignard coupling of 2-bromo-3-methylthiophene and 5,5'-dibromo-2,2'-d
ithiophene, and chemical polymerization of the resulting tetramer usin
g FeCl3 as coupling agent gave a new type of substituted polythiophene
, namely ''-dimethyl-(2,2':5',2'':5'',2''')tetrathiophene)) (PDMTT), w
ith two new and interesting features compared to conventional polythio
phenes. Firstly, we have a polythiophene with exact methyl side group
positioning, eliminating the possibility of side group position disord
er. Secondly, and especially interesting from a structural point of vi
ew, we obtained a polymer which is intermediate between the unsubstitu
ted polythiophene (PT) and poly(3 methylthiophene) (P3MT). The polymer
was obtained as a black insoluble powder which turned out to be amorp
hous. X-ray diffraction profiles were measured and compared to the pro
files of PT and P3MT. We were able to follow the intensity and positio
n variation of the diffraction peaks as a function of the methyl subst
itution.