Smartphone light-driven electrocatalytic polymerization of thiophenes

Herein, we take advantage of the photoelectric effect produced on light-emitting diodes to induce a kinetically controlled electrocatalytic polymerization of 3,4-alkoxythiophenes. Wireless polymerization was achieved by fine-tuning the irradiation time, the power density and the molecular structure of the thiophenes. A smartphone based light-driven system is introduced as a simple and low cost polymerization approach to π-conjugated films.