Electrodeposition of high-quality and free-standing novel conducting poly-acenaphthene films

High-quality and free-standing poly-acenaphthene films with conductivity of 10− 2 S/cm were electrochemically deposited on stainless steel electrode from mixed electrolyte of distilled boron trifluoride diethyl etherate (BFEE) containing 3.5% concentrated sulfuric acid (by volume) and 50 mmol l− 1 acenaphthene. Partly soluble poly-acenaphthene in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) showed blue photoluminescence at excitation of 362 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the electrochemical polymerization of acenaphthene and characterization of its polymer.