Highly conducting, iodine-doped arylene vinylene copolymers with dialkoxyphenylene units

Abstract

A series of arylene vinylene copolymers containing both unsubstituted and 2,5-dialkoxy-substituted 1,4-phenylene vinylene units were prepared from water-soluble, sulphonium salt precursor polymers. The conversion of the precursor to the conjugated copolymers was studied by differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis, and the arylene vinylene copolymers so formed were characterized by elemental analysis and by Fourier-transform infra-red and ultra-violet/visible spectroscopy. The results were compared to those obtained for the poly(p-phenylene vinylene) and poly(2,5-dimethoxy-p-phenylene vinylene) homopolymers, which were prepared under equivalent conditions. Doping of drawn and undrawn films of the copolymers with iodine vapour led to conductivities as high as 1500 S cm-1 with good air stability.