Electrochemical oxidation of dipyrrolyl derivatives: application to the formation of reticulated conducting polymers with conjugated spacers

In this work, derivatives of thiophene and pyrrole where the two electropol ymerizable units are linked with the phenyl derivatives have been studied. First, the monomers were studied to elucidate their polymerization mode. Ev en with extended conjugated structures, the oxidized monomer remains reacti ve enough to lead to polymerization and, irrespective of the monomer chosen , reticulated structures are always obtained. In such materials, the conduc ting chains (polypyrrole, or regioregular poly(pyrrole/bithiophene)) are co nnected through conjugated spacers. Secondly, the polymers in their oxidize d and reduced state were characterized by IR spectroscopy. Results show tha t the electronic interactions between the chains and the conjugated spacers are modulated by the oxidation state of the polymer. These results suggest that such conjugated spacers can be used to promote interchain electronic connections in conducting polymers. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All righ ts, reserved.