PRECURSOR ROUTE CHEMISTRY AND OPTOELECTRONIC PROPERTIES OF POLY(PYRIDINE VINYLENE)

Several soluble precursor routes, involving sulfonium-, methoxy-, and chloro-substituted polymers, have been investigated for the synthesis of poly(pyridine vinylene)(PPyV). The thermal conversions of these pre cursors to fully conjugated polymer PPyV have been characterised by TG A, FT-IR and UV-VIS spectroscopy in conjunction with microanalysis. Of all the precursors, the chloro-substituted polymer is the most conven ient for forming good quality thin films. PPyV fluoresces orange red a nd has a HOMO-LUMO band gap of 2.2 eV. PPyV has a lower luminescent qu antum efficiency compared with its analogue, poly(phenylene vinylene) (PPV), but a higher electron affinity according to CV measurements (wi th reduction potential of -1.3 V). PPyV was used as an orange red emis sive layer in a LED using aluminium as cathode.