Electrochemical copolymerization of carbazole and 2,2 ':5 '-2 '' terthiophene: characterization and micro-capacitor application

Abstract

In this paper, a copolymer of carbazole (Cz) and 2,2':5',2 ''-terthiophene (TTh) was electropolymerized in 0.1 M sodium perchlorate (NaClO4)/acetonitrile (CH3CN) on glassy carbon electrode. The optimum conditions of resulting homopolymers of Cz, TTh and copolymer of Cz and TTh in the initial feed ratio of [Cz](0)/[TTh](0) = 1/10 were characterized by cyclic voltammetry, Fourier-transform infrared-attenuated total reflectance, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Morphological analysis of copolymer shows that a microspherical and web-like morphology was formed for copolymer at different initial feed ratios of [Cz] 0/ [TTh] 0 = 1/2, 1/5 and 1/10. The capacitive behavior of the modified electrodes was defined via Nyquist, Bode-magnitude, and Bode-phase plots. The highest low-frequency capacitance (C-LF) was obtained as 4.11 mFcm(-2) in the initial feed ratio of [Cz](0)/[TTh](0) = 1/10. Double-layer capacitance (C-dl) and phase angles (theta) were obtained for homopolymer and copolymer systems. The highest C-dl was obtained as 2.01 mFcm(-2) for the copolymer in the initial feed ratio of [Cz](0)/[TTh](0) = 1/2. The highest phase angle of copolymer was obtained as theta = similar to 75 degrees in the initial feed ratio of [Cz](0)/[TTh](0) = 1/1. These capacitance results confirmed that films of copolymer Cz/TTh are promising materials for micro-capacitor applications.