M. Lal et al., POLYMERIZATION IN A REVERSE MICELLE NONREACTOR - PREPARATION OF PROCESSABLE POLY(P-PHENYLENEVINYLENE) WITH CONTROLLED CONJUGATION LENGTH, Chemistry of materials, 10(4), 1998, pp. 1065-1068
We show that a nanoscale polymerization reaction within the confinemen
t of a reverse micellar cavity yields products with controlled conjuga
tion lengths and, thus, controlled band gaps for applications to elect
ronics and photonics. In addition, control of the physical size (lengt
h) of the polymer provides the prospects of monodispersity, improved p
rocessability, and preparation of nanocomposites. This novel approach
has been successfully applied to produce controlled chain length poly(
p-phenylenevinylene) (PPV), a polymer that has drawn considerable atte
ntion in recent years for its electrolumineseence, nonlinear optical,
and lasing properties.