As key components of flexible organic electronics, the synthesis of polythiophenes via less toxic and more cost-effective routes is demanded. An efficient synthetic route for the production of thienyl-containing homopolymers and copolymers has been developed. The synthetic approach consists of: i) the synthesis in high yield and high purity of thienyl borane monomers protected with N-methyliminodiacetic acid (MIDA) via C-H electrophilic borylation. This reaction uses a combination of inexpensive reagents BCl3, AlCl3, and 2,6-dichloropyridine (Cl2Py) for the regioselective electrophilic aromatic substitution of thiophenes, followed by addition of a second aprotic amine pre-esterification to reduce the Brønsted acidity of the reaction mixture. In situ esterification provided the desired thienyl MIDA boronateester monomers in one-pot at room temperature. ii) Subsequent Suzuki-Miyaura polymerisation of the synthesised monomers to produce well defined thienyl containing pie-conjugated polymers in high molecular weight and high yields. Key reaction parameters for successful Suzuki-Miyaura polymerisation of thienyl-derived MIDA boronate esters under mild temperatures (i.e., 55 °C in THF) were found: a) an optimal monomer:H2O:base ratio, which enables controlled hydrolysis of the BMIDA moiety into its corresponding boronic acid at appropriate rates for high fidelity polymerisation. b) Nature of the base, where K3PO4 provided the best results for production of homopolymers (e.g., rr-P3HT), or KOH which gave excellent results for the formation of copolymers across a range of electronically different comonomers (e.g., pCPDT-BT). Thus, it is demonstrated that the approach is a general strategy for the highly efficient production of thienyl containing pie-conjugated regioregular, regiosymmetric and Donor-Acceptor polymers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:727930 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Ayuso Carrillo, Josue |
| Contributors | Ingleson, Michael |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/low-cost-more-efficient-and-less-toxic-synthetic-routes-to-conjugated-polymers(ee15f7a0-39da-46e8-b512-ff3fb33e4f06).html |
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