Effects of the redox group of carbazole-EDOT derivatives on their electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical properties

•Obtained three novel monomers based on carbazole derivatives and redox groups.•All the resulting polymer films could show multi-electrochromic property.•The bleaching time of P(BCB-Fc) and P(BCB-TEMPO) films are found to be 0.79 and 0.73 s, respectively.

Three novel monomers based on carbazole-3, 4-ethoxylenedioxythiophene and redox groups were synthesized and characterized. Their polymer films were obtained by electropolymerization. Cyclic voltammetry and spectroelectrochemistry of the polymer films showed that they possessed multi-electrochromic property. The presence of ferrocene and 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy units not only changed the films' colour but also improved their switching time due to their excellent electrochemical properties. Additionally, the polymer films also possessed a reasonable transmittance change, which made them promising candidates for use in electrochromic devices.

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