Electropolymerization mechanism of N-methylaniline

D Wei, C Kvarnstrom, Tom Lindfors, Leif Kronberg, R Sjoholm, Ari Ivaska

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    27 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    A poly(N-methylaniline) (PNMA) film was obtained by chronoamperometry on tin oxide (TO) in dimethylformamide DMF containing 0.5 M sulphuric acid. The PNMA film formation was monitored by in situ UV-vis spectroscopy. A detailed electropolymerization mechanism and reaction pathway of N-methylaniline (NMA) is proposed based on mass spectroscopy (MS) and NMR analysis. The NMA repeating units (both in the film and in the soluble part) were found to be partially dealkylated during electropolymerization. NMA was also electropolymerized in different solvents such as propylene carbonate (PC) and acetonitrile (ACN). Our results show that protonation is not a necessary condition to initiate the electropolymerization of NMA, but it may play a key role for the propagation of longer conjugated chains. The influence of solvents on the film formation and the function of protons are discussed in this paper. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
    Original languageUndefined/Unknown
    Pages (from-to)541–548
    Number of pages8
    JournalSynthetic Metals
    Volume156
    Issue number7-8
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2006
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Keywords

    • electropolymerization mechanism
    • in situ UV-vis spectroscopy
    • MS
    • poly(N-methylaniline)

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