A facile preparation of a self-doped conducting polymer

Abstract

A self-doped conducting polymer having alkanesulphonic acid groups on polythiophene has been directly synthesized from sodium 3-(3-thienyl)propanesulphonate 3 by chemical polymerization with FeCl₃ in an aqueous medium; the resulting acid form of this polymer after work-up shows highly self-doped behaviour both in water and as a solid film and has a high molecular weight distribution.