Design and synthesis of new 4,4′-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene based electrochromic polymers

Design, synthesis, optical and electrochemical properties of two novel 4,4'-Difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY) based donor-acceptor compounds, 1 and 2, are reported in order to elucidate the structure-property relationships in BODIPY based materials. Importantly, these compounds provide opportunity to be used as crosslinkers, since they have three electroactive donor sides. Furthermore, these compounds are polymerized successfully via electrochemical polymerization. The corresponding polymers (P1 and P2) are also characterized by using electrochemical and optical methods in monomer-free electrolyte solutions. It is found that both polymers P1 and P2 exhibit reversible oxidation peaks with half wave potentials of 0.70 V and 0.98 V vs. Ag/AgCl, respectively, and they have low optical band gaps (1.88 eV for P1 and 1.72 eV for P2). It is also noted that the polymers exhibit multielectrochromic properties upon doping: P1 can be switched from pink color in the neutral state to blue color in the oxidized state and P2 can be switched from transmissive pink color when neutralized to transmissive blue color when oxidized. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.