화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, Vol.46, No.6, 2097-2107, 2008
A facile route of polythiophene nanoparticles via Fe3+-catalyzed oxidative polymerization in aqueous medium
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. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.