Polythiophenes with various substituted hydrazone side groups were synthesized using a chemical oxidative coupling reaction. Analyses of IR and NMR spectra confirmed the expected structure of new synthesized polymers and confirmed suitability of the suggested synthetic route. Surface properties, morphology and thermal stability of the prepared polymers were studied by SEM and TGA methods. Two derivatives were found to have a good solubility in several water-miscible solvents. They can be used as active materials in electrochromic and electronic devices. | Vietnam Journal of Chemistry, International Edition, 54(6): 730-735, 2016 DOI: Synthesis and characterization of polythiophenes from hydrazone derivatives sidegroups * Vu Quoc Trung1 , Nguyen Ngoc Linh1, Duong Khanh Linh1, Jiri Pfleger2 1 Faculty of Chemistry, Hanoi National University of Education 2 Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Received 13 June 2016; Accepted for publication 8 December 2016 Abstract Polythiophenes with various substituted hydrazone side groups were synthesized using a chemical oxidative coupling reaction. Analyses of IR and NMR spectra confirmed the expected structure of new synthesized polymers and confirmed suitability of the suggested synthetic route. Surface properties, morphology and thermal stability of the prepared polymers were studied by SEM and TGA methods. Two derivatives were found to have a good solubility in several water-miscible solvents. They can be used as active materials in electrochromic and electronic devices. Keywords. Polythiophene, hydrazone, chemical polymerization, conducting polymer. 1. INTRODUCTION Conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) with hydrophobic π-conjugated backbones and hydrophilic ionic side groups show unique optical and electrical properties together with a good solubility in water and water-miscible solvents, making processing of these polymers from aqueous and other environmental friendly solutions possible [1, 2]. As CPEs exhibit both electronic and ionic conductivity, they can be used as active materials in the development of electrochromic devices, or they can facilitate the charge carrier injection in various electronic device structures, such as organic lightemitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) [3]. The observed performance improvement was ascribed to the redistribution of ions in the CPE film, causing hole accumulation at the interface between the CPE and the active semiconducting .
