Syntheses and investigation of polymers containing 1-triazene-1,3-diyl and 1,4-phenylene group

Triazene-group-containing polymers have been synthesized from p-phenylenediamine precursors by diazotization and azo-coupling methods. For this purpose, two pathways have been used. The effect of monomer/sodium nitrite ratio on the solubility of the polymers, as well as the dependence of properties such as electrical conductivity and ESR upon the main chain structure, have been investigated. Solubility tests showed that the lower the sodium nitrite/p-phenylenediamine molar ratio (<1), the higher the solubility of the resulting polytriazene. 1H NMR, IR, and UV/vis absorption spectroscopies have been used to elucidate the chemical structures of the polymers obtained. Electrical conductivity studies and ESR measurements have been conducted on both as-synthesized and doped polymer samples. The room temperature electrical conductivity of the obtained polymers was found to increase from 10−11–10−9 to 7 × 10−3–2 × 10−2 S/m upon doping with iodine. According to ESR spectroscopy data, this increase in conductivity may be attributed to improved charge carrier (polaron) mobility. An important feature of these polymers is that their conductivity may be increased up to 10−4 S/m by doping with hydrochloric and sulfuric acids.