C-60-containing poly(1-phenyl-1-alkynes): Synthesis, light emission, and optical limiting

While polymerizations of 1-phenyl-1-propyne (PP) and 1-phenyl-1-butyne (PB) initiated by WCl6-Ph4Sn at room temperature yield small amounts of polymer s (0.05-5.3%) with low molecular weights (M-n 8000-15000) and high polydisp ersity indexes (PDI up to 109), addition of C-60 into the initiator mixture dramatically boosts its catalytic activity, producing polymers with high M (n)s (up to 171000) and low PDIs (down to 2.2) in high yields (up to 99.5%) . The resultant polymers are soluble, stable, and film-forming. GPC, IR, NM R, UV, and XRD analyses reveal that the polymers consist of polyacetylene c hains and covalently bound C-60 cages (up to 9.1 wt %). Whereas photolumine scence of C-60-containing polyPPs is faint? C-60-containing polyPBs emit st rong blue light (lambda(max) = 456 nm) readily observable with the naked ey e under normal laboratory lighting. Compared with the parent C-60, both two groups of the fullerene polyacetylenes show better optical limiting perfor mance, and their THF solutions, with higher linear transmittance, attenuate the power of intense 532 nm optical pulses to lower saturation fluence.