Toward Camouflage Colors by Electrochemical Copolymerization

In this paper, a new electrochromic copolymer containing 6,9-bis(2,3-dihydrothieno[3,4-b][1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenazine (EBE) and 4-(9-benzyl-9H-carbazol-3-yl)-7-(thiophen-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (CBT) in the main chain was reported. The homopolymers, (Poly(EBE) and Poly(CBT)), were also prepared via electrochemical polymerization and their electrochemical, spectroelectrochemical and electrochromic properties were analyzed in order to compare their properties with those of copolymer (Poly(EBE-co-CBT)). The copolymer exhibited good switching property for military camouflage necessities with color change from hues of brown to green. Furthermore, it has been tried to analyze the effects of combination of two donor-acceptor-donor (DAD) type monomers with different symmetries on the copolymer properties. A viable strategy for electrochromic adaptive camouflage was presented. New electrochromic copolymer film containing 6,9-bis(2,3-dihydrothieno[3,4-b][1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenazine and 4-(9-benzyl-9H-carbazol-3-yl)-7-(thiophen-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole in the main chain was synthesized using electrochemical polymerization technique. The resulting copolymer film matched the military camouflage necessities with having color changes from hues of brown to green. Moreover, an "asymmetric and symmetric donor-acceptor-donor type monomeric combination" in an electrodeposited copolymer film was first time presented.image