Electrochemical surface plasmon resonance and field-enhanced light scattering: Monomer copolymerization with a polysiloxane-conjugated polythiophene network precursor

The in situ electrochemical and dielectric film properties of monomer co-electropolymerization with a CPN precursor was investigated. A polysiloxane/polythiophene precursor was electropolymerized with thiophene monomer at different composition ratios using cyclic voltammetry. This was investigated in situ by EC-SPR spectroscopy and EC-SPFELS. The characteristic oscillations corresponded to distinct transitions in film deposition. The resonance coupling of the SPR decreased with higher thiophene monomer content. Increasing the amount of thiophene monomer increased the RMS roughness of the film as observed by AFM, which corresponded to an increase in scattered light intensity with EC-SPFELS. Ultrathin films of conducting polymers have many applications such as LED devices, solar cells, touch panel displays, and electrostatic materials. Polythiophene is one of the most investigated. In this case, copolymerization with a polysiloxane precursor enabled the formation of smooth films. The copolymerization process was investigated in situ using electrochemical surface plasmon spectroscopy and light scattering methods.