Synthetic routes to phenylene vinylene dendrimers

Dendrimers offer the opportunity to vary the electronic properties of an el ectroactive material without changing the processing procedure. Poly(1,4-ph enylenevinylene) and its derivatives have been widely studied for use in li ght-emitting diodes. We have investigated two different iterative routes fo r the formation of phenylenevinylene based dendrimers to compare their prop erties with the linear counterparts. Our approach involves palladium-cataly sed coupling of styryl derivatives to halo-benzenes which has enabled the r apid construction of a family of dendrimers.