Influence of the enzymatic and the chemical oxidative polymerization of trifluoromethyl-substituted aromatic diamine on thermal and photophysical properties

Abstract

Semi-conductive polymers have been used in a few area applications such as coatings, accumulators, solar cells, rechargeable batteries, ion sensors, photoreceptors, light-emitting diodes and electrochromic instruments. Poly(4-(trifluoromethyl)benzene-1,2-diamine)s of Poly(TFMBDA)-O and Poly(TFMBDA)-E were synthesized via chemical oxidative and enzymatic polymerization methods, respectively, using 4-(trifluoromethyl)benzene-1,2-diamine (TFMBDA) as monomer. FT-IR, UV–vis and 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR instruments were utilized in order to confirm the structures of all compounds. The Mw values of the polymers and their PDI values were found to be between 5000–7000 Da and 1.045–1.115, respectively, from GPC measurements. The glass temperature of phenazine-type structure of Poly(TFMBDA)-O was higher compared to that of Poly(TFMBDA)-E, which was composed of phenyl units linked with –NH bridges. As soon as Poly(TFMBDA)-O and Poly(TFMBDA)-E were excited by UV light, they had a quantum efficiency of 6.3% and 13.7%, respectively, in DMF for violet photoluminescence (PL) emission depending on photoluminescence measurement. SEM images revealed that Poly(TFMBDA)-O consisted of approximately 1–2 μm of uniform micro-spheres and a granular surface with different pore diameters. The enzymatic oxidation with HRP afforded Poly(TFMBDA)-E micro-rods of about 5–10 μm-long shape in their SEM images.