Nanotubular structures through templateless electropolymerization using thieno[3,4-b]thiophene derivatives with different substituents and water content

Here, we report a strategy to prepare controllable nanotubular structures using a templateless electropolymerization process in organic solvent (CH2Cl2) and without surfactant. We use thieno [3,4-b]thiophene derivatives with various substituents including hydrocarbon chains, fluorocarbon chains and aromatic groups of various size. The influence of the water content (CH2Cl2+ H2O) in also studied in order to release in situ a higher amount of gas bubbles (O-2 and/or H-2 ). The best results are obtained with the pyrene substituent, which lead to highly densely packed nanotubular structures while the water content allows to highly increase their porosity, changing the resulting surface morphology from treelike to coral-like structure. This is probably due to both high pi-stacking interaction of pyrene and its polymerization capacity in the same potential range. This change also induces an increase in surface hydrophilicity because the water highly penetrates these porous structures. Moreover, both the poly (thieno [3,4-b]thiophene) polymers and the substituents participate to the film fluorescence while the nanostructures seem to amplify their intensity. Such surfaces are extremely interesting for potential applications in sensors or in water harvesting systems. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.