SYNTHESIS AND PROCESSING OF HETEROCYCLIC POLYMERS AS ELECTRONIC, OPTOELECTRONIC, AND NONLINEAR-OPTICAL MATERIALS .3. NEW CONJUGATED POLYQUINOLINES WITH ELECTRON-DONOR OR ELECTRON-ACCEPTOR SIDE GROUPS

We report the synthesis, characterization, and preparation of thin fil ms and optical properties of five new polymers containing electron-don or or -acceptor side groups in the class of conjugated polyquinolines. It is found that the electronic structure and linear optical properti es of the new phenylated polyquinolines with or without methoxy or flu oro substitutions on the phenyl side group were very similar: a lambda (max) of about 450 nm and a bandgap of approximately 2.36 eV. The abse nce of any significant effect of the donor or acceptor side group on t he intrinsic electronic and optical properties of the phenylated polyq uinolines is explained by the dominant conformational effects of the b ulky side group on the pi-electron delocalization. The new conjugated polyquinolines with donor or acceptor side-group substituents, by virt ue of their asymmetric structure, may prove to be interesting electron ic, optoelectronic, and nonlinear optical materials.