The electronic and electrochemical properties of poly(isothianaphthene)

The physical and electronic properties of poly(isothianaphthene) PITN, are reported, including initial characterization, electrochemical cyclic voltammetry, spectroscopy, and transport properties. PITN has the smallest energy gap of any known conjugated organic polymer, Eg≂1 eV. This novel conjugated polymer exhibits reversible chemical and electrochemical p-type doping with an associated high contrast color change. After doping, thin films of PITN have very low optical density in the visible portion of the spectrum. Thus, PITN is the first example of a transparent highly conducting polymer (σ∼50 Ω−1 cm−1).