Conducting polymer composite films with core - Shell-like nanostructure prepared from terthiophene-terminated starburst poly (n-butyl acrylate)

A novel conductive polymer composite with core-shell like nanostructure was successfully synthesized using 12-armed terthiophene terminated starburst poly(n-butyl acrylate) as precursor. The unique core shell-like structure enables the composite film to possess good conductivity at very low conjugated moiety content. The ω-bromo ends of the 12-PBA were modified to generate the same number of hydroxyl groups by nucleophilic substitution using excess ethanolamine as a nucleophilic and base. The complete substitution with ethanolamine was verified by the total disappearance of the signal at δ=4.05 ppm, corresponding to the proton in the terminal -CHBr- groups. Treatment with FeCl₃ immediately changed the color of the 12-PBA-terTh film from light yellow to dark brown. It was observed that the core-shell like structure enables the composite film to possess good conductivity at very low conjugated moiety content.