A new multicolored and near-infrared electrochromic material based on triphenylamine-containing poly(3,4-dithienylpyrrole)

A new compound containing both 3,4-dithienylpyrrole (DTP) and triphenylamine (TPA) groups, namely, 4′-(2,5-di(thiophen-2-yl)-1H-pyrrol-1-yl)-N,N-diphenylbiphenyl-4-amine (DTP-Ph-TPA), was designed and synthesized. The polymer poly-DTP-Ph-TPA (PDTP-Ph-TPA) was prepared by electropolymerization from DTP-Ph-TPA. When the applied potential circulates from 0.0 V to 1.4 V, the polymer not only exhibits reversible multicolor in the visible region (yellow, light green, magenta and blue), but also shows excellent electrochromic properties in the NIR region with high contrast ratio (ΔT = 70.5% in 1550 nm, ΔT = 67.9% in 1310 nm) and a very short response time (about 1.4 s for 1550 nm, 0.9 s for 1310 nm). A single layer electrochromic device (ECD) based on polymer PDTP-Ph-TPA was constructed and characterized.