Preview
Document Type
Undergraduate Research
Creation Date
Spring 4-8-2015
Department
Chemistry
Abstract
Redox active polymers have received considerable attention within the past 25 years. The potential applications of redox polymers include batteries, biosensors, and photovoltaics. To meet the requirements of these applications, redox polymers must be electrochemically, possess a high degree of redox material, and be well hydrated. Within redox polymers, a variety of polymer backbones and redox activate materials have been utilized to meet these requirements. Poly(vinylpyridine), poly(Nvinylimidazole), poly(allylamine), and poly(ethylenimine) are included in the polymers reported for support of the redox mediator. Among the most popular redox mediators reported include ferrocene, osmium, and ruthenium.
Ferrocene containing polymers continue to receive considerable attention due to their well understood chemistry and stable redox responses. Our research has focused on understanding the spatial arrangement and electrical properties of alternating copolymers from 3-phenyl[5]ferrocenophane- 1, 5-dimethylene with various para substituted phynylmaleimides. Cyclic voltammetry using these chemically modified electrodes with aqueous sodium percholorate showed two redox waves indicating electronic interaction between the ferrocenyl and maleimide moieties. To understand the spatial arrangement of the monomers, first-principle studies using density functional study (OFT) was used to obtain the optimized geometries. OFT studies clearly showed the ferrocenyl moiety in close proximity to the maleimide moiety, suggesting that electronic interactions could result between these two moieties.
