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Conjugated Polymers with Self-Immolative...
Journal article

Conjugated Polymers with Self-Immolative Sidechainsfor Carbon Nanotube Dispersion and Applications

Abstract

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are promising materials for generating high-performance electronic devices. However, these applications are greatly restricted by their lack of purity and solubility. Commercially available SWNTs are a mixture of semi-conducting (sc-) and metallic (m-) SWNTs and are insoluble in common solvents. Conjugated polymers can selectively disperse either sc- or m-SWNTs and increase their solubility; however, the conductivity of conjugated polymer-wrapped SWNTs is largely affected by the insulating polymer side chains. We have recently developed a poly(fluorene-co-phenylene) polymer whose sidechains are attached using a self-immolative linker.[1] This self-immolative linker is stabilized with a tert-butyldimethylsilyl ether group that, upon treatment with tetra-n-butylammonium fluoride (TBAF), undergoes a 1,6-elimination reaction to release the sidechain. Sonication of this polymer with SWNTs in tetrahydrofuran (THF) results in concentrated dispersions that are used to prepare polymer-SWNT thin films. Treatment with TBAF causes rapid side-chain cleavage, releasing carbon dioxide and other small molecule by-products, which can be easily removed by washing with solvent. The resulting material is characterized by a combination of absorption and Raman spectroscopy, as well as four-point probe measurements. The conductance of the SWNT thin films rapidly increased by two orders of magnitude upon simple TBAF treatment, opening new possibilities for producing high-conductivity SWNT materials for applications such as transparent electrodes[2] and pressure sensors. Our work in the development of carbon nanotube films for these applications will be discussed. References Yu, A. Adronov, Small 2024, 2310257.Yu, A. Adronov, Chem. Mater. 2024, 36, 6219–6225. Yu, A. Adronov, Small 2024, 2310257. Yu, A. Adronov, Chem. Mater. 2024, 36, 6219–6225. Figure 1

Authors

Yu X; Adronov A

Journal

ECS Meeting Abstracts, Vol. MA2025-01, No. 12, pp. 1038–1038

Publisher

The Electrochemical Society

Publication Date

July 11, 2025

DOI

10.1149/ma2025-01121038mtgabs

ISSN

2151-2043

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