Electrochromic properties of multicolored novel polymer synthesized via combination of benzotriazole and N-functionalized 2,5-di(2-thienyl)-1H-pyrrole units

Abstract Synthesis of new conducting polymers is desired since their electrochemical and optical properties enable them to be used as active layers in many device applications. Benzotriazole and N-functionalized 2,5-di(2-thienyl)-1H-pyrrole (SNS Series) containing polymers showed very promising results as electrochromic materials. In order to observe the effect of the combination of these two units, three new monomers; 2-(6-(2,5-bis(5-methylthiophen-2-yl)-1H-pyrrol-1-yl)hexyl)-4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)-2H benzo[d][1,2,3]triazole (M1), 2-(6-(2,5-di(thiophen-2-yl)-1H-pyrrol-1-yl)hexyl)-4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)-2H-benzo[d][1,2,3]triazole (M2) and 2-(6-(2,5-di(thiophen-2-yl)-1H-pyrrol-1-yl)hexyl)-4,7-bis(5-methylthiophen-2-yl)-2H-benzo[d][1,2,3]triazole (M3) were synthesized. To better characterize the electronic and spectroscopic properties of the monomers, density functional theory (DFT) and its time-dependent generalization (TD-DFT) were used to calculate their vertical ionization potentials, vertical electron affinity and to simulate and interpret their infrared and UV-vis spectra. The monomers were electrochemically polymerized and the resultant polymers were characterized with cyclic voltammetry and UV-vis-NIR spectroscopy techniques. An electrochromic device was constructed with electrochemical polymer of M2. The device switched between red and blue colors and showed exceptional optical memory.