A novel route to synthesis polythiophene with great yield and high electrical conductivity without post doping process
Abstract Polythiophene (PTh) was synthesized by a standard chemical oxidation procedure by using Ferric chloride (FeCl 3 ) as an oxidizer without any post doping process. The synthesis procedure was optimized by varying different parameters like reaction temperature, monomer to oxidizer ratio, solvent system, reaction time and oxidizer addition time to realize the maximum electrical conductivity and without compromising on product yield. In the optimized synthesis procedure, highest yield of 80% with a maximum electrical conductivity of 9 Scm −1 was achieved. These results are first of its kind in the literature reported so far for the similar conditions. The enhancement of electrical conductivity was attributed to the increase in the degree of polymerization under the optimized reaction conditions and was substantiated with UV–Vis, Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS), FTIR, NMR solid state, SEM, XRD and DSC studies. This paper is the first of its kind to report the room temperature synthesis procedure of PTh with highest electrical conductivity and yield.