Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Organic Conducting Polymers

摘要

The last two years have seen an extraordinary growth of interest in photovoltaic (PV) cells made from organic conducting polymers. Such attention stems primarily from the prospect of using organic materials in manufacturing ultra thin, flexible devices. Polymeric photovoltaic cells also present a tantalizing possibility for producing coatings that function as sunlight- harvesting paints or even for developing fabrics to produce electricity from sunlight. The U.S. Navy developed an interest in electroactive polymeric research because of these specific potential applications for such devices and the materials from which they are based. The Office of Naval Research is currently probing new opportunities to convert energy into useful power sources, motivated by its interest in the development of an electric Navy for future years. The technical objectives for this Trident Scholar project were the synthesis and characterization of high conductivity, high optical transparency conducting polymer films that incorporate 3,4-ethylenedixoythiophene (EDOT) monomers. Initially, the EDOT derivative 2,3-dihydrothieno3, 4-B1,4dioxin-2-yl methanol was synthesized via a multi-step process starting from diethyl 3,4- dihydroxythiophene- 2,5-dicarboxylate. Triphenylamine and oligo(p-phenylene vinylene) units were also synthesized to be employed as light-harvesting groups.