Fluorene-based polymers-preparation and applications

This paper briefly reviews our work on the syntheses and applications of a family of fluorene-based polymers. We have found that fluorene as a monomer offers a number of advantages, the most significant being its ability to i mpart solubility while maintaining a high degree of delocalization. An impr oved Pd-catalyzed polymerization procedure has enabled the preparation of a large variety of fluorene homopolymers and copolymers. Unlike PPV and rela ted materials, LED devices with fluorene polymers in a conventional configu ration appear to have electrons as the majority carrier and their performan ce is markedly improved when modified with an appropriate polymeric hole tr ansporting layer. An optimized green-emitting device exhibits very high lum inance (10 000 cd m(-2)) at very low bias (< 7 V) and high efficiency (simi lar to 10 lm W-1), attributable in part to the high hole mobility of fluore ne-based polymers. Applications of these materials to other electronic devi ces, such as field effect transistors and photocells, are in progress.