Journal
POLYMER
Volume 52, Issue 10, Pages 2302-2309Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2011.03.026
Keywords
Conjugated polymer; Polythiophene; Crystallization
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [DMR 0746499]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Combining the structural characterization of solution crystals fabricated from thiophene-based conjugated polymers with different molecular structures and a theoretical investigation of the polymer conformational transformability leads to an interesting discovery of the relationship between the molecular structures and their crystallization behaviors. The chain folding or nonfolding behavior of thiophene-based conjugated polymers in crystallization, an important factor to shape polymer crystals, is determined by their molecular structures, and can be estimated by the inter-ring rotation energy barriers of the polymer backbones. A quantitative theoretical calculation is proposed to evaluate the inter-ring rotation energy barriers, and the values are correlated with the experimentally observed chain folding or nonfolding behavior. The higher percentage of type I inter-ring a bond (CH(3) and H are at 3 and 3' position of adjacent aromatic rings, respectively) or the lower average rotation barrier in polymer backbones creates higher capability of polymer conformational transformation and higher tendency of chain folding. Our study provides a valid prediction of the crystallization behavior of thiophene-based conjugated polymers through a theoretical evaluation of conjugated polymer molecular structures, and offers an essential understand of the structure-property relationship of conjugated polymers. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available