Synthesis of highly branched conducting polymer architecture for electrochromic applications

Abstract

Electrochromic materials have attracted enormous attention due to their potential applications, such as low-power displays, smart windows for energy efficient buildings, electrochromic e-skins, self-dimming rear mirrors for automobiles and so on. Synthetic strategies of new materials for electrochromic are believed to be the key factors that will help to significantly improve the electrochromic performance and extend their application areas. In this account, we designed and synthesized a novel star shape dithienylpyrrole derivative, namely N1,N3,N5-tris(2,5-di(thiophen-2-yl)-1H-pyrrol-1-yl)benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide (TCA), to obtain high optical and electrical performance as functional electrochromic material. After electrochemical polymerization of the TCA, the polymer shows superior optical and electrical properties due to its more conjugated unique three-dimensional shape and highly-branched structure in comparison with its linear counterparts. It has been determined that optical properties and long term electrochromic stability of pTCA are the best among the PSNS derivatives in the literature after evaluating its electrochemical, spectroelectrochemical and EQCM experiment results.