Spectroelectrochemical and electrochromic behavior of poly(methylene blue) and poly(thionine)-modified multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

The increasing efforts devoted to fabricating electrochromic (EC) devices have motivated a lot of studies to develop new EC materials. Herein, we introduce two poly(phenothiazine)-type redox active polymer films as new EC materials. Poly(methylene blue) (PMB) and poly(thionine) (PTH) films were electrochemically deposited onto the transparent fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) electrode modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), which are named as FTO/MWCNTs/PMB and FTO/MWCNTs/PTH, respectively. The as-prepared polymer films were characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and spectroelectrochemical techniques. Both polymer films exhibited EC behavior at approximately 600 nm. PMB and PTH films are blue and pale purple, respectively, in the oxidized state and change their color to colorless, if reduced at − 0.6 V. In particular, FTO/MWCNTs/PMB showed a satisfactory ΔT (24%) at 600 nm. The obtained results demonstrate that PMB and PTH, as derivatives of phenothiazine dyes, can be introduced as novel EC materials.

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Funding

This work has been supported by grants from the Bu-Ali Sina University Research Council, the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF, Grant No. 97009978), and Centre of Excellence in Development of Environmentally Friendly Methods for Chemical Synthesis (CEDEFMCS).

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Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Chemistry, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran

    Arash Ghoorchian, Tayyebeh Madrakian & Abbas Afkhami

  2. D-8 International University, Hamedan, Iran

    Abbas Afkhami

  3. Chemical Injuries Research Center, Systems Biology and Poisonings Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Hasan Bagheri

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  1. Arash Ghoorchian
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  2. Tayyebeh Madrakian
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  3. Abbas Afkhami
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Correspondence to Tayyebeh Madrakian.

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Ghoorchian, A., Madrakian, T., Afkhami, A. et al. Spectroelectrochemical and electrochromic behavior of poly(methylene blue) and poly(thionine)-modified multi-walled carbon nanotubes. J Solid State Electrochem (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-021-04901-5

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Keywords

  • Spectroelectrochemistry
  • Electrochromic behavior
  • Poly(methylene blue)
  • Poly(thionine)
  • Electropolymerization