Facile synthesis and polymerization of dibromo-bis-EDOT and its side-chain decorated dimer: an effective approach from dimer species

In the present work, we demonstrate an efficient bromine-catalyzed polymerization for PBis-EDOT [poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) derived from dimer unit] and its soluble derivative PBis-EDOT-C 6 [hexyl-derivatized poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) derived from dimer unit] by using dibrominated dimer unit Bis-EDOT and its side chain decorated derivative Bis-EDOT-C 6 , respectively at room temperature. Here, we also present an efficient and simple synthesis of dimer units DBBis-EDOT and DBBis-EDOT-C 6 . The selective synthesis of hexyl-substituted symmetric dimer species DBBis-EDOT-C 6 allows soluble polymer. The synthesized molecules are well characterized and finally confirmed by a single X-ray crystal structure. The resulting polymers are conducting and characterized by NMR, FT-IR, GPC, and Raman spectroscopy. The optical and electrical properties of these polymers were found to be nicely correlated with previously reported. DFT calculation was also performed on these dimers, monomer, and polymers to understand the structure and energy levels.