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Initial photooxidation mechanism leading to reactive radical formation of polythiophene derivatives

2014; Springer Nature; Volume: 47; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/pj.2014.81

1349-0540

Yoshinori Aoyama, Toshihiro Yamanari, Takurou N. Murakami, Tatsuya Nagamori, Kazuhiro Marumoto, Hiroto Tachikawa, Junji Mizukado, Hiroyuki Suda, Yūji Yoshida,

Synthesis and properties of polymers

We investigated the initial photooxidation mechanism leading to reactive radical formation of polythiophene derivatives by focusing on the differences in the photochemical behaviors of photounstable poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and photostable poly(3-octyloxythiophene) (P3OOT). Electron spin resonance measurements revealed that the [P3HT]+· (formed by oxygen doping) decayed, whereas no change was observed in the photostable [P3OOT]+· after light irradiation. Furthermore, the absorption decrease of the [P3HT]+· (P3HT) was suppressed by superoxide dismutase. Therefore, the oxygen dopant is superoxide, which might also initiate the oxidation of P3HT. The photochemical difference between P3HT and P3OOT can be explained by the reaction of an α-proton with superoxide in the case of P3HT. We investigated the initial photooxidation mechanism leading to reactive radical formation of polythiophene derivatives by focusing on the differences in the photochemical behaviors of photounstable poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and photostable poly(3-octyloxythiophene) (P3OOT). Electron spin resonance measurements revealed that the [P3HT]+· (formed by oxygen doping) decayed, whereas no change was observed in the photostable [P3OOT]+· after light irradiation. Furthermore, the absorption decrease of the [P3HT]+· was suppressed by superoxide dismutase. Therefore, the oxygen dopant is superoxide, which might also initiate the oxidation of P3HT.