Spectroscopic study of rigid-rod polymers. II. Protonation effect

The protonation of a heterocyclic rigid-rod polymer poly(p-phenylene benzbisthiazole) and its model compound has been studied by UV-visible and Raman spectroscopy. Because of the two nitrogens on the heterocyclic ring, spectroscopic features of unprotonated, half-protonated, and fully protonated structures have been identified. For the fully protonated molecule, there is also an increase in conjugation between the phenyl ring and the heterocyclic ring.