Synthesis and characterization of functionalized 3,4-propylenedioxythiophene and its derivatives

A functionalized monomer based on 3,4-propylenedioxythiophene, namely ProDOT-OH, was synthesized easily in a single step from commercially available starting materials and was successfully polymerized electrochemically resulting in the formation of an electroactive conjugated film on the working electrode. The presence of the free hydroxyl group makes ProDOT-OH as the material of choice due to ease of derivatization. This has been shown successfully for pre-polymerization functionalization wherein various derivatives were synthesized starting from ProDOT-OH. All the monomers were characterized by 1H, 13C NMR, GC-MS and elemental analysis. The polymers were characterized by cyclic voltammetry, spectroelectrochemistry and in situ conductance measurements.