Spectroelectrochemical study of the oxidative doping of polydialkylphenyleneethynylene using iterative target transformation factor analysis

Iterative target transformation factor analysis (ITTFA) was used to determine the spectra of the individual species generated during the oxidative p-doping of films of poly(para-phenyleneethynylene) (PPE), UV-visible spectra of PPE films on transparent electrodes were obtained in-situ during an anodic sweep. ITTFA identified 4 species present during the oxidation, which we assign as neutral polymer, polaron species, bipolaron species, and a species formed by further bipolaron reaction. The region of electrochemical stability for each of these species was identified and their potential-dependent profiles were obtained. This work is the first deconvolution of conjugated polymer spectroelectrochemistry.