Electropolymerization of diaminofluorene and its electrochemical properties

Poly 2,7-diaminofluorene (PDAF)/Au modified electrode was prepared using 2,7-diamino fluorene (DAF) dissolved in acetonitrile (ACN) containing 0.1 M LiClO4 using consecutive multisweep cyclic voltammetry (CV) and controlled potential electrolysis (CPE) techniques. Factors affecting the film formation, such as limits of potential cycling, sweep rate, number of sweeping cycles, monomer concentration, and also polymerization techniques were examined in detail. It was found that the optimum conditions, using a potentiodynamic technique on Au electrode as the working electrode, are by sweeping the potential between –200 mV and 800 mV at a sweep rate of 50 mV/s for 10 cycles using 5 mM DAF monomer solution. The obtained modified electrode was active only in acidic aqueous solutions (pH range from 0 to 2) and its activity was found to be pH dependent. PDAF was isolated and characterized using UV–vis, 1HNMR and SEM analyses. The electrical conductivity was found to be 1.5 × 10−5 S cm−1. An electropolymerization mechanism was proposed and discussed based on the obtained experimental data and molecular orbital calculations. The obtained modified electrode has been found to improve the electrochemical reversibility and decrease the overpotential of hydroquinone. PDAF/Au was stable chemically and electrochemically both in aqueous and organic solutions, making it an excellent candidate for sensing and/ or electrocatalytic applications.