Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

New morphologies of polyacetylene from the precursor polymer polybenzvalene

Journal Article · · Journal of the American Chemical Society; (USA)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00194a041· OSTI ID:7072348
;  [1]
  1. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (USA)
The synthesis and properties of the polymer polybenzvalene and its conversion to polyacetylene are presented. This conversion is performed by treating polybenzvalene with Lewis acidic catalysts. The highest quality material was obtained from the isomerization with HgCl{sub 2}. The polyacetylene (PA) produced by this precursor route has a morphology that is considerably more amorphous than other forms of polyacetylene that have been previously reported. Orientation of the precursor polymer by stretching induced crystallinity and chain alignment as determined by X-ray diffraction. The unoriented PA exhibited a conductivity of 1 {Omega}{sup {minus}1} cm{sup {minus}1} and I{sub 2} doping. Materials stretched to elongations of l/l{sub 0} = 2.3 and l/l{sub 0} = 6 displayed conductivities of 13 {Omega}{sup {minus}1} cm{sup {minus}1} and 49 {Omega}{sup {minus}1} cm{sup {minus}1}, respectively. Block copolymers of polynorbornene and polybenzvalene were produced. These copolymers exhibited no phase separation as determined by DSC. The isomerization of these materials produced a polyacetylene-polynorbornene copolymer which exhibits a dominant x-ray diffraction peak with a d spacing of 4.7 {angstrom}. These results indicate that the interchain spacing of the block copolymer is significantly greater than that of the polyacetylene homopolymer due to the intimate mixing of the polyacetylene with the polynorbornene.
OSTI ID:
7072348
Journal Information:
Journal of the American Chemical Society; (USA), Journal Name: Journal of the American Chemical Society; (USA) Vol. 111:12; ISSN 0002-7863; ISSN JACSA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English