Electrochemical synthesis of a copolymer of poly(3-octylthiophene) and poly(paraphenylene)

Electrochemical copolymerization of 3-octylthiophene and biphenyl and the r edox behaviour of the formed copolymer films have been Studied. Influence o f different polymerization parameters such as the concentrations and the ra tios of the starting materials and the current density on the formed copoly mer material was studied. Synthesis of the copolymer films was studied and verified by cyclic voltammetric experiments, FT-IR measurements, scanning e lectron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA). The c ontent of each of the monomer units in the copolymer films was found to be highly dependent on both the ratio and concentration of the starting materi als and the current density used. The structure of the copolymer depends al so on the thickness of the film. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.