Synthesis and characterization of electroactive films deposited from aniline dimers

The electrochemical oxidation of the aniline dimers 2-aminodiphenylamine (2-adpa) and 4-aminodiphenylamine (4-adpa) has been performed in strongly acidic medium on platinum, graphite, and indium tin oxide electrodes. The resulting films have been characterized by a number of electrochemical, microscopic, and spectroscopic techniques in order to gain some insight on their respective chemical structures. Both poly(2-adpa) and poly(4-adpa) are electroactive species which differ significantly one from another. It was found that aged poly(4-adpa)displayed electrochemical, morphologic and spectroscopic characteristics similar to those shown by polyaniline. On the contrary, poly(2-adpa) is really a mixture of three oligomerization products. The two main oligomers contain both open-ring and cycled phenazine centers, although their chemical structures seem to differ in the cap-end of the chain growth. The third oligomer is a minor product which seems a highly symmetric macrocycle involving several 2-adpa molecules. This work has been cofinanced by the European Commission (ERDF funds) and the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Cultura (MAT2004-01479). University of Alicante assisted in meeting the publication costs of this article.