In the first part of this work, the structural and thermal characteristics of polyacrylonitrile, polyacrylonitrile films treated under the electrolysis conditions in the absence of thiophene, polythiophene and the mechanical mixture and a conducting copolymer of polyacrylonitrile/polythiophene have been studied by pyrolysis mass spectrometry technique. The thermal degradation of polyacrylonitrile occurs in three steps / evolution of HCN, monomer, low molecular weight oligomers due to random chain cleavages are followed by cyclization and dehydrogenation reactions yielding crosslinked and unsaturated segments. Pyrolysis of the treated polyacrylonitrile films indicated decrease in the yields of monomer and oligomers, and increase in the amount of products stabilized by cyclization reactions were detected. Polythiophene degrades in two steps / the loss of the dopant and degradation of polymer backbone. The evolution profiles of polythiophene based products from polythiophene/polyacrylonitrile showed nearly identical trends with those recorded during the pyrolysis of pure polythiophene. However, evolution of HCN and the degradation products due to the homolytic cleavages of the polymer backbone continued through out the pyrolysis indicating a significant increase in their production. Furthermore, the yield of thermal degradation products associated with decomposition of the unsaturated cyclic imine segments decreased. A careful analysis of the data pointed out presence of mixed dimers confirming copolymer formation. In the second part of this work, a poly(acrylonitrile-co-butadiene) sample involving monomer units having quite similar molecular weights have been analyzed to investigate the limits of the pyrolysis mass spectrometry technique. Pyrolysis of aged poly(acrylonitrile-co-butadiene) indicated oxidative degradation of the sample. Keywords: conducting copolymer, polyacrylonitrile, polythiophene, polybutadiene, direct pyrolysis mass spectrometry

Electrochemical polymerization of pyrrole functionalized polystyrene (PStPy) with pyrrole was carried out in water-sodium dodecyl sulfate solvent-electrolyte couple. Characterization of the resulting copolymer was performed via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and four probe conductivity measurements. Glucose oxidase and polyphenol oxidase enzymes were immobilized in polypyrrole (PPy) and conducting copolymer of pyrrole functionalized polystyrene with pyrrole (P(PStPy-co-Py). Resulting enzyme electrodes were characterized by kinetic parameters / Vmax and Km. Behavior of enzyme electrodes upon temperature and pH changes were investigated. Glucose oxidase electrode was used for the determination of glucose in orange juice and polyphenol oxidase electrode was used for the determination of polyphenolic compounds in red wine.

ABSTRACT IMMOBILIZATION OF INVERTASE, POLYPHENOL OXIDASE AND GLUCOSE OXIDASE IN CONDUCTING COPOLYMERS OF THIOPHENE-CAPPED POLYTETRAHYDROFURAN AND PYRROLE B&ouml / y&uuml / kbayram, AySe Elif Ph.D., Department of Chemistry Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Levent Toppare January 2005, 123 pages Immobilization of invertase, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and glucose oxidase (GOD) enzymes were performed in electrochemically synthesized two types of conducting copolymers. One end and two end thiophene-capped polytetrahydrofuran (TPTHF-1 and TPTHF-2) were copolymerized with pyrrole under conditions of constant potential electrolysis. The copolymers were characterized by thermal, spectroscopic and scanning electron microscopy analyses. Immobilization was carried out via entrapment of enzymes in two types of matrices during the copolymerization of pyrrole with the insulating polymers in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). Kinetic parameters: Maximum reaction rate (Vmax) and Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) were determined for the enzyme electrodes. Temperature optimization, pH optimization, operational stability and shelf-life of the enzyme electrodes were investigated. Enzyme electrodes of polyphenol oxidase and glucose oxidase were used to determine the amount of their substrates in samples. Polyphenol oxidase converts mono and diphenols to quinone. Amount of phenolic compounds in two kinds of wines were determined by analyzing the quinone amount. Glucose oxidase converts &amp / #61538 / -D-glucose to D-glucono-1,5-lactone. Glucose amount was determined in two kind of factory-produced orange juices by analyzing D-glucono-1,5-lactone.