Functional Conducting Polymers via Thiol-ene Chemistry

We demonstrate here that thiol-ene chemistry can be used to provide side-chain functionalized monomers based on 3,4-propylenedioxythiophene (ProDOT) containing ionic, neutral, hydrophobic, and hydrophilic side chains. All reactions gave high yields and purification could generally be accomplished through precipitation. These monomers were polymerized either chemically or electro-chemically to give soluble materials or conductive films, respectively. This strategy provides for facile tuning of the solubility, film surface chemistry, and film morphology of this class of conducting polymers