Hydroxyethyl substituted polyanilines: Chemistry and applications as resists

New conducting copolymers of o-hydroxyethylaniline and aniline were synthesized. In certain solvents these polymers are found to exhibit a red shift in the UV-Visible spectrum as compared to the unsubstituted polyaniline and to other ring substituted derivatives. This is due to enhanced hydrogen bonding interactions with the processing solvents as a result of the hydroxy functionality. In the doped form, the poly(o-hydroxyethyl)aniline homopolymer shows a conductivity equal to the unsubstituted polyaniline. The presence of the hydroxy functionality allows for further derivatization to a methacrylate substituent which upon radiation exposure crosslinks as a negative-tone resist.