Cathodic Polymerization through Electrochemical Dehalogenation
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: It is very challenging to realize the polymerization of benzene/polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) under neutral and mild conditions, although their polymerization could be harshly conducted. To address this issue, we envision that carbon–carbon coupling among small molecules can be fulfilled via electrochemical dehalogenation and believe that this method could become a general method for the polymerization of halogen-substituted benzene, halogen-substituted PAHs, or halogen-substituted heteroatom-containing aromatic compounds. In fact, employing electrons as catalysts to construct various conjugated polymers under mild and neutral conditions is very important to fabricate large-area thin films, as well as multilayer heterostructures for broad applications in organic optoelectronic devices. Here, we demonstrate that by employing the electrochemical dehalogenation method, 1,4-diiodo(or dibromo)benzene, 1,4-dibromonaphthalene, 1,5-dibromonaphthalene, 9,10-dibromoanthracene, 2,6-dibromoanthracene, 2,7-dibromophenanthrene, 2,7-dibromopyrene, 1,3,5-tribromobenzene, and 1,3,5-tris(4-bromophenyl)benzene can be polymerized at various cathodes (silicon, gold, platinum, stainless steel, etc.) to form smooth films, which has potential applications in organic optoelectrical devices.
Source: Macromolecules
Language: English
Subfield: Polymers and Plastics
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4387823250