Langmuir, Vol.22, No.22, 9431-9435, 2006
Formation of a perylenetetracarboxylic diimide network film by post electrochemical treatment
Perylenetetracarboxylic diimide (PDI) derivatives bearing two or four peripheral pyrrole pendants (PDI-nPy, n= 2 or 4) are cross-linkable materials by electro/phototreatment. In this paper, we introduce a new posttreatment technique to produce an insoluble film. Unlike the common solution-phase electrochemical deposition, we first spin-coated PDI-nPy on an electrode and then electrotreated the coated surface in a monomer-free electrolyte solution. This method gives the film a smooth surface with no granules, while the common method induces a rough film with a lot of granules. The post electrochemical treatment also provides a merit of higher resolution in a patterning process on a specific metal electrode. As one of the applications, we carried out an electrochromic study on the posttreated PDI-4Py film. It turned purple (lambda(max) = 590 nm) and sky blue (lambda(max) = 797 nm) at 0 and -1.9 V vs Ag/Ag+, respectively. We believe this method will broaden the patterning concept with the desired film morphology and resolution using PDI on a specific electrode.