Electrochemical polymerization of EDOT substituted Phthalocyanines. Its applications as photoelectric and electrochromic materials.

CLAUDIA SOLÍS, ESTEFANÍA BAIGORRIA, MARÍA ELISA MILANESIO, EDGARDO DURANTINI, LUIS OTERO, MIGUEL GERVALDO

Maresias

Encuentro; XII ELAFOT; 2015

The employment of organic materials in the development of solar cells, organic light emitting diodes, electrochromic cells, is one of the most active research areas in materials science. Many studies on the development of electronic and energy conversion materials incorporate phthalocyanines, chlorophyll derivatives, and related tetrapyrrolic compounds, due to their participation in the photosynthesis process and their unique electronic, magnetic and optical properties. Thin films exhibiting high conductivity that are fabricated through the electropolymerization of electroactive monomers are potential alternative materials for the preparation of highly efficient devices The use of electrogenerated films has the advantage of being synthetized in one-step, which allows fine control over the film thickness, an important parameter when fabricating optoelectronic devices. Thus, the electrochemical polymerization of suitable Phthalocyanines monomers can be an appropriate way for the production of optoelectric films. Phthalocyanines can be easily modified with electropolymerizable groups in order to obtain thin films for applications in different fields. On the other hand EDOT has been used as building blocks in the generation of polymers because they are excellent hole transport materials. In this work we present the formation of new films generated by electropolymerization of EDOT substituted Phthalocyanine monomers. The films were generated and characterized by cyclic voltammetry, UV-vis spectroscopy and, spectroelectrochemistry. An electropolymerization mechanism that involves coupling of two EDOT radical cations is proposed. As a result, Phthalocyanines connected by EDOT dimmers are obtained. The films showed the generation of photocurrents under illumination, and also presented different colors during oxidation/reduction cycles.