A facile route of polythiophene nanoparticles via Fe³⁺-catalyzed oxidative polymerization in aqueous medium
2008
Lee, Sun Jong | Lee, Jung-Min | Cheong, In Woo | Lee, Hoosung | Kim, Jung Hyun
We have demonstrated that unsubstituted thiophene can be polymerized by Fe³⁺-catalyzed oxidative polymerization inside nanosized thiophene monomer droplets, that is, nanoreactors, dispersed in aqueous medium, which can be performed under acidic solution conditions with anionic surfactant. Besides, we proposed a synthetic mechanism for the formation of the unsubstituted polythiophene nanoparticles in aqueous medium. This facile method includes a FeCl₃/H₂O₂ (catalyst/oxidant) combination system, which guarantees a high conversion (ca. 99%) of thiophene monomers with only a trace of FeCl₃. The average particle size was about 30 nm, within a narrow particle-size distribution (PDI = 1.15), which resulted in a good dispersion state of the unsubstituted polythiophene nanoparticles. Hansen solubility parameters were introduced to interpret the dispersion state of the polythiophene nanoparticles with various organic solvents. The UV-Visible absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectrum were measured to investigate the light emitting properties of the prepared unsubstituted polythiophene nanoparticle emulsions. According to non-normalized PL analysis, the reduced total PL intensity of the polythiophene nanoparticle emulsions can be rationalized by self-absorption in a wavelength range less than 500 nm.
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