Abstract
Defects involving sp
3 hybridized carbon atoms in the form of (HCD) units have been controllably introduced into
trans-(CH)
x
by chemical methods to produce polymers of the type
trans-(CHD
y
)
x
,
i.e., [(CH)
1-
y
− (HCD)
y
]
x
(
y = 0, 0.15 and 0.17), in order to study the nature of these defects and their effect on the electronic and magnetic properties of
trans-(CH)
x
. The effects of these defects on the electrochemical reduction (n-doping) of
trans-(CHD
y
)
x
up to 4.0 mol % reduction levels have been studied. The results are consistent with optical and Raman spectra of
trans-(CHD
y
)
x
species and are interpreted as showing that: (i) the band gap in
trans-(CHD
y
)
x
is essentially unchanged from that in
trans-(CH)
x
because of a small but significant amount of long conjugated sequences remaining in the deuterated polymer; (ii) the maximum density of states near the conduction band edge has moved upwards from the band edge; and (iii) the (HCD) defects are clustered rather than randomly spaced in a given (CHD
y
)
x
chain.