A new soluble neutral state black electrochromic copolymer via a donor-acceptor approach

Two donor-acceptor systems, 2-decyl-4,7-bis(3,3-didecyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-thieno[3,4-b][1,4]dioxepin-6-yl)-2H-benzo[d][1,2,3]triazole (1) and 4,7-bis(3,3-didecyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-thieno[3,4-b][1,4]dioxepin-6-yl)-2,1,3-benzoselenadiazole (2) are explored in order to attain a low bandgap black polymer electrochrome, which is highly difficult to attain due to the complexity of designing such materials. Electrochemical polymerization of 1 and 2 in 1:4 monomer feed ratio was performed in a mixture of acetonitrile and dichloromethane solution containing 0.1 M tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate. It was found that electropolymerization provides a processable neutral state black copolymer, (P(1-co-2)), which absorbs virtually the whole visible spectrum (400-800 nm). (P(1-co-2)) is the first low bandgap (1.45 eV) electropolymerized material, which switches from black color (L = 14.3, a = 0.29, b = 0.35) in the neutral state to transmissive grey (L = 39.2, a = 0.29, b = 0.33) in the oxidized state with 15.3% of the transmittance change at 522 nm. Furthermore, it exhibits excellent operational and/or environmental stability under ambient conditions. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.