Electrochemical synthesis and spectroelectrochemistry of o/m-toluidine and o-phenylenediamine copolymers in inorganic electrolytes
Among conducting polymers, polyaniline is one of the most widely studied materials because of its moderately high conductivity upon doping by protonation, good environmental stability and ease of synthesis [1,2]. However, its insolubility in common solvents, which results in difficult processability, has restricted its applications[3].
Recently, polytoluidines have attracted considerable attention since they exhibit better solubilities than polyaniline[4-6].On the other hand electrodes modified with poly-o-phenylenediamine films are of great interest due to their practical applications for electrochromic devices [7,8], sensors[9-10], catalysis of some important electrochemical reactions[12], and corrosion protection of metals[13-14]. By combining the advantages of polytoluidines with poly-o-phenylenediamine, synthesis of copolymers might be an answer to cope with the problems associated with the application of homopolymers. So far there is no report on the chemical or electrochemical synthesis of copolymers of o/m-toluidine and o-phenylenediamine.
Proposal
Orthophenylenediamine 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 and in situ surface resonance Raman (SRR) spectroscopy. The spectroscopic properties of the copolymers will be compared with those of homopolymers.
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