Conducting Polymer Grafting: Recent and Key Developments

Since the discovery of conductive polyacetylene, conductive electroactive polymers are at the focal point of technology generation and biocommunication materials. The reasons why this research never stops growing, are twofold: first, the demands from the advanced technology towards more sophistication, precision, durability, processability and cost-effectiveness; and second, the shaping of conducting polymer research in accordance with the above demand. One of the major challenges in conducting polymer research is addressing the processability issue without sacrificing the electroactive properties. Therefore, new synthetic designs and use of post-modification techniques become crucial than ever. This quest is not only advancing the field but also giving birth of new hybrid materials integrating merits of multiple functional motifs. The present review article is an attempt to discuss the recent progress in conducting polymer grafting, which is not entirely new, but relatively lesser developed area for this class of polymers to fine-tune their physicochemical properties. Apart from conventional covalent grafting techniques, non-covalent approach, which is relatively new but has worth creation potential, will also be discussed. The aim is to bring together novel molecular designs and strategies to stimulate the existing conducting polymer synthesis methodologies in order to enrich its fascinating chemistry dedicated toward real-life applications.

Chain shape and thin film behaviour of poly(thiophene)-graft-poly(acrylate urethane)

Electronic graft copolymers with conjugated polymer backbones are emerging as promising materials for various organic electronics. These materials combine the advantages of organic electronic materials, such as molecular tunability of opto-electronic and electrochemical properties, with solution processability and other 'designer' physical and mechanical properties imparted through the addition of grafted polymer side chains. Future development of such materials with complex molecular architecture requires a better understanding of the effect of molecular parameters, such as side chain length, on the structure and, in turn, on the electronic properties. In this study, poly(thiophene)-graft-poly(acrylate urethane) (PTh-g-PAU) was examined as a model system and we investigate the effect of side chain length on the overall shape and size in solution. Furthermore, the changes in the swelling behaviour of the graft copolymer thin films help in understanding their electrochemical redox properties.

Crystal structure and Hirshfield surface analysis of 4-phenyl-3-(thio-phen-3-ylmeth-yl)-1H-1,2,4-triazole-5(4H)-thione

In the title compound, C13H11N3S2, the phenyl ring is twisted from the 1,2,4-triazole plane by 63.35 (9)° and by 47.35 (9)° from the thio-phene plane. In the crystal, chains of mol-ecules running along the c-axis direction are formed by N-H⋯S inter-actions [graph-set motif C(4)]. The 1,2,4-triazole and phenyl rings are involved in π-π stacking inter-actions [centroid-centroid distance = 3.4553 (10) Å]. The thio-phene ring is involved in C-H⋯S and C-H⋯π inter-actions. The inter-molecular inter-actions in the crystal packing were further analysed using Hirshfield surface analysis, which indicates that the most significant contacts are H⋯H (35.8%), followed by S⋯H/H⋯S (26.7%) and C⋯H/H⋯C (18.2%).

Water soluble polythiophenes: preparation and applications

Different synthetic procedures for water soluble polythiophenes and their applications in sensing, detection of biomolecules and optoelectronic devices are discussed.