Synthesis and Characterization of Eumelanin-Inspired Poly(indoylenearylenevinylene)s and Poly(indoylenearyleneethynylene)s

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-1-2017

Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry

School

Mathematics and Natural Sciences

Abstract

Four novel conjugated polymers containing the eumelanin-inspired indole core have been successfully synthesized using common cross coupling reactions. These polymers differed by the arylene and the carbon–carbon bond linkage. Optoelectronic experiments of these polymers suggest that the ethynylene linkage contributed to the red-shifted absorption spectra and blue-shifted emission spectra when compared to the vinylene linkage polymers. Furthermore, the optical bandgaps of the poly(indoylenearyleneethynylene)s (PIAEs) were smaller compared to the poly(indoylenearylenevinylene)s (PIAVs). Surprisingly, the HOMOs of these polymers were less affected by the nature of the carbon–carbon linkage. However, the LUMOs of the PIAEs were lower in comparison to the PIAVs. These eumelanin-inspired PIAEs and PIAVs are good fluorophores with fluorescence quantum yields ranging from 0.12 to 0.67 and have good thermal stability for applications such as in organic light-emitting diodes. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017, 55, 457–463

Publication Title

Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry

Volume

55

Issue

3

First Page

457

Last Page

463

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