Yellow light-emitting poly(phenylenevinylene) incorporated with pendant ruthenium bipyridine and terpyridine complexes

Simultaneous emission from PPV and ruthenium (II) complexes is demonstrated in the title materials (see Fig). The PPV backbone emits green light and t he ruthenium polypyridine complexes emit red light resulting in overall yel low emission. At low metal complex content the hexamethylene spacer of the pendant ruthenium complexes prevents quenching of the backbone emission but at higher loading quenching becomes dominant, allowing the emission color of the materials to be tuned by adjusting the metal complex content.