Date of Award
Spring 5-2016
Degree Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Polymers and High Performance Materials
First Advisor
Jason D. Azoulay
Advisor Department
Polymers and High Performance Materials
Abstract
In this thesis, a selenium-derivatized acceptor was synthesized to examine the heavy atom effects of selenium on the position of the frontier molecular orbitals (HOMO/LUMO band gap) as opposed to sulfur in a donor-acceptor copolymer for use in light harvesting and detection applications. Over the course of this research, standard operating protocols for ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis-NIR) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopies, as well as cyclic voltammetry (CV) characterization techniques were established. Once synthesized, the polymers were characterized through use of the established characterization protocols. The selenium-derivatized polymer exhibited a bathochromic shift compared to the sulfur analogue, with a solid-state absorption cutoff of 1140 nm compared to 1050 nm for the sulfur analogue and an optical band gap of ~1.1 eV.
Copyright
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Recommended Citation
Walker, William D., "Synthesis of Acceptors for Use in Donor-Acceptor Copolymers and Characterization of these Polymers" (2016). Honors Theses. 360.
https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/360
Included in
Polymer and Organic Materials Commons, Polymer Chemistry Commons, Semiconductor and Optical Materials Commons