Polymerization of Solid-State 2,2′-Bithiophene Thin Film or Doped in Cellulose Paper Using DBD Plasma and Its Applications in Paper-Based Electronics

Abstract

We present a method to prepare a conductive paper hybrid based on the polymerization of bithiophene monomer directly from the solid state of 2,2′-bithiophene inside a sheet of standard letter paper using atmospheric plasma since both the monomers and some plasma species, such as radicals, can penetrate into the paper. Polymerization of a 2,2′-bithiophene in its solid form using plasma offers a simple and straightforward way to synthesize a conductive polymer. To understand the polymerization reaction in atmospheric plasma, the formation of polythiophene on substrates and the reaction mechanism were investigated with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and ultraviolet−visible (UV−vis) spectroscopy. The kinetics of the polymerization reaction was investigated by using UV−vis, and the rate of polymerization was found to be the second-order reaction. The resulting polymer film exhibited a conductivity of 6.67 S/ cm when I 2 was doped in the film. The polymerization 3,3′-dibromo-2,2′-bithiophene to poly(3,3′-dibromo-2,2′-bithiophene) was also studied for comparison. The described process provides a universal yet effective method of preparing conductive polythiophene films and polythiophene inside a sheet of paper. Three devices based on the synthesized conductive paper were also presented in this work.

Electropolymerizable Thiophene–Oligonucleotides for Electrode Functionalization

“…BTh is the dimer of the thiophene unit that can be easily electropolymerized by potentiostatic, galvanostatic, or potentiodynamic techniques . Even if potential sweep techniques require longer reaction times to obtain well-attached polymer films compared to potentiostatic or galvanostatic measurements, this method is used due to the possibility to monitor the electrochemical properties of the growing polymer, along the polymerization process, allowing a detailed study of the electropolymerization kinetics. − Hence, the electropolymerization of the monomer was carried out potentiodynamically by repetitive cycling of the electrode potential (between 0.0 and 1.2 V vs Ag/AgCl) in a solution containing 9.8 mM of the monomer and 0.1 M LiClO 4 in ACN:water (1:1 v/v), at a scan rate of 50 mV·s –1 (see SI, Figure S11). Under these conditions, an irreversible oxidation process on the surface of the ITO electrode in the ACN:water system was observed, showing in the first potentiodynamic cycle the typical trace-crossing effect observed during the electrochemical polymerization of π-conjugated systems .…”

Polymerization of Solid-State Aminophenol to Polyaniline Derivative Using a Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma

“…The aminophenol-coated wafer was then treated with DBD in the atmospheric environment for 3 or 4 min until no further change was observed from on UV spectra. The DBD air plasma was generated using a setup reported previously [17]. Briefly, the size of the copper DBD electrode was 38 mm × 64 mm and it is covered with an 1-mm-thick glass slide.…”

“…The frequency of the power supply was from 500 Hz to 1.5 kHz with a max amplitude of 20 kV magnitude. The voltage and frequency of the plasma set-up were 11.2 kV (R = 75 Ω) and 1 kHz, respectively, for all the experiments [17]. The plasma discharge gap was 5 mm and the temperature is at 25 • C.…”

“…Other advantages include less pollution to the environment, shorter treatment time etc. [16,17]. The air-plasma contains reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species (ROS and RNS) that can initiate the polymerization reaction.…”

Bulk Polymerization of PEGDA in Spruce Wood Using a DBD Plasma-Initiated Process to Improve the Flexural Strength of the Wood–Polymer Composite

“…Recently, we demonstrated that nonthermal dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma can be used to initiate the radical polymerization of solid-state 2,2 -bithiophene to form thin films [11]. We further demonstrated that DBD plasma could be used to polymerize the 2,2bithiophene inside of cellulose paper to make paper-based electronics.…”