Electro-deposition and pattering ultrathin films of conjugated polymers on flat conducting surfaces: the precursor polymer and grafting approach for electro-optical applications

摘要

Conjugated polymers are materials of great interest. Their properties and synthesis have been widely studied over the past decade, both for fundamental reasons and potential applications. The recent Nobel prize awarded to MacDiarmid, Heeger, and Shirakawa attest to the importance of this field and their applications. Because the polymers are often intractable and rigid, their properties needs to be tailored for solubility by choosing proper substituents (usually alkyl groups) that are incorporated in this design and synthesis. The most studied groups include: polyanilines, polypyrroles, polythiophenes, polyfluorenes, etc. These polymers, bearing properly designed side groups, can undergo striking conformational changes when exposed to heat, light, electric fields, various chemical moieties (dopants) giving rise to conductivity, fluorescence, reversible thermochromism, photochromism, electrochromism, and even ionochromism. Thus they have found applications as conducting polymers, polymer light emitting diode (PLED), field-effect transistor (FET) devices, and even lasers.