Electrochemical Preparation and Spectroelectrochemical Characterization of o/m-toluidine and o-aminophenol Copolymers
Conducting polymers attract significant interest as promising candidates for various applications as electrocatalysts [1 - 4], electrochromic devices [5, 6], solar cells [7] and rechargeable batteries [8, 9]. Among conducting polymers, polyaniline has been studied extensively. However, polyaniline has low conductivity and little electrochemical activity at pH > 4 and its usable potential range decreases with increase in pH value.
A possible way for solving this problem is to improve the properties of polyaniline, either via the polymerization of substituted monomers [10, 11] or copolymerization of aniline with other monomers. The copolymerization of aniline with N-methylaniline, N-butylaniline and 2-(4-aminophenyl)-6-methylbenzothiozole has been carried out using chemical methods [12 - 14]. Pioneering work for the electrochemical copolymerization of aniline with o- or m-toluidine was done by Wie et al. [15]. The electrochemical copolymerization of aniline and p-aminophenol has been carried out in the organic electrolyte [16]. This copolymer has potentiometric sensor function for phenol in aqueous solution. Recently ,Shaolin Mu reported the electrochemical copolymerization of aniline and o-aminophenol [17].
This preliminary study is only limited to the preparation and electrochemical activity of the copolymer.
Subtituting aniline by toludines may be led to improve the properties of the copolymer obtained as polytoluidine exhibit better solubilites than polyaniline [4,5-15] .
PLANNED RESEARCH
O-aminophenol will be electrochemically copolymerized with o/m-toluidines. The effect of monomers concentration and the nature of electrolytes on the rate of copolymerization will be studied by cyclic voltametry. The homopolymers and copolymers will be characterized by in situ UV-visible spectroscopy ,in situ FTIR spectroscopy and conductivity measurements. The spectroscopic properties of the copolymers will be compared with those of homopolymers.
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