| Popis: |
The good electrical conductivity, thermal and chemical stability, and easy functionalization of poly(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) are a good starting point for the ever-growing search for new conductive materials for the wearable electronics industry. Pristine PEDOT lacks stretchable and self-healing properties, which can be modified using various approaches. One of the approaches used in this work is the synthesis of PEDOT-g-PCL copolymers with the aim of achieving stretchability and self-healing properties through hydrogen bonding via polycaprolactone (PCL) branching. Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) is used as a synthetic route to obtain products with desired properties, while controlling molecular weight values and distribution. The PEDOT homopolymer does not have the appropriate functional groups for ATRP, so it must first be functionalized. This is achieved by synthesizing a PEDOT derivative copolymer with 2- (tiophen-3-yl)ethyl-2-bromo-2-methylpropanoate) (ThBr) as the second monomer. This molecule ensures that the conjugated backbone is maintained and active sites for ATRP are added. In addition, PCL must be functionalized to include a double bond functional group to make it suitable for ATRP. This is achieved in two ways by ring-opening polymerization (ROP). The first approach was to use hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) as an initiator and diphenyl phosphate (DPP) as a catalyst for the ROP of ε-caprolactone. The second approach was to use 3-phenyl-1-propanol as initiator for the synthesis of PCL, which was later functionalized with acrylic anhydride to introduce the acrylic functional group. The ROP performed under these conditions shows great control over the molecular weight values and the distribution of the final products. PCL with different molecular weight was synthesized to investigate the influence of the molecular weight of PCL on the final properties of the PEDOT-g-PCL copolymers. The last step was ATRP of PEDOT-g-PCL products with different ratios and lengths of PCL chains. All the obtained products were characterized by different techniques to confirm their structure, properties and the success of each polymerization. |
