Conjugated polymers containing electron‐transporting,hole‐transporting,and light‐emitting units in the polymer main chain

Conjugated polymers containing electron‐transporting, hole‐transporting, and blue light‐emitting units were synthesized by Suzuki polycondensation. These copolymers exhibited excellent thermal and optical stability. Optical investigation indicated that the incorporation of the spirobifluorene units in the polymer main chain could markedly increase the effective conjugation length of polymers. Electrochemical studies showed that the incorporation of spirobifluorene unit could raise the electrochemical stability and improve the electron‐ and hole‐injecting abilities. The electroluminescent results also showed that the introducing of spirobifluorene units could significantly improve the device performance. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 1349–1356, 2008     

Bipolar copolymers comprised mesogen‐jacketed polymer containing oxadiazole units and PVK as host materials for electroluminescent devices

Nonconjugated bipolar transport polymers have been developed as host materials for electroluminescent devices by incorporating both electron‐transporting and hole‐transporting functionalities into copolymers. The random copolymer PCt‐nvk3‐7 containing mesogen‐jacketed segment of P‐Ct have been synthesized and characterized. The effect of mesogen‐jacketed segment content of these bipolar copolymers on device performance has been investigated. The results of polymer light‐emitting diodes (PLEDs) show that the jacketed content of copolymers has a significant effect on device performance: lowering charge transport and facilitating the hole‐electron recombination leads to much higher current efficiency. Applying these high triplet random copolymers as host, the maximum current efficiency of 0.70 cd/A and the maximum brightness of 1872.8 cd/m² was achieved for PCt‐nvk3‐7 with an orange‐emitting complex dopant. The results suggest that the bipolar copolymers PCt‐nvks can be good host polymers for electrophosphorescent devices. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 7861–7867, 2008     

White electroluminescence from a single polymer: A blue‐emitting polyfluorene incorporating orange‐emitting benzoselenadiazole segments on its main chain

We have developed efficient white‐light‐emitting polymers through the incorporation of low‐bandgap orange‐light‐emitting benzoselenadiazole ( BSeD ) moieties into the backbone of a blue‐light‐emitting bipolar polyfluorene (PF) copolymer, which contains hole‐transporting triphenylamine and electron‐transporting oxadiazole pendent groups. By carefully controlling the concentrations of the low‐energy‐emitting species in the resulting copolymers, partial energy transfer from the blue‐fluorescent PF backbone to the orange‐fluorescent segments led to a single polymer emitting white light and exhibiting two balanced blue and orange emissions simultaneously. Efficient polymer light‐emitting devices prepared using this copolymer exhibited luminance efficiencies as high as 4.1 cd/A with color coordinates (0.30, 0.36) located in the white‐light region. Moreover, the color coordinates remained almost unchanged over a range of operating potentials. A mechanistic study revealed that energy transfer from the PF backbone to the low‐bandgap segments, rather than charge trapping, was the main operating process involved in the electroluminescence process. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 2938–2946, 2007     

Synthesis and properties of new poly(terfluorene) derivatives containing spirobifluorene and electron transport groups for stable blue electroluminescence

We have synthesized three new blue‐emitting poly(terfluorene) derivatives containing spirobifluorene and electron transport groups (quinoline or oxadiazole). The strategy is to connect the monomers via positions 2 and 2′ of spirobifluorene, which significantly restricts the interchain interaction and effectively adjusts the conjugation length. The incorporation of electron‐deficient units (quinoline or oxadiazole) into the positions 7 and 7′ of spirobifluorene tunes the emission band and reduces the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy level. Blue electroluminescence with narrow emission was achieved in the devices of ITO/PEDOT/polymer/Ca/Al. The maximum luminances are in the range of 102–235 cd/m² and the maximum photometric efficiencies are in the range of 0.17–0.21 cd/A. All the polymers show good spectral stability, and are promising for use as stable blue‐emitting or electron‐transport/injection materials in polymeric light‐emitting diodes. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 4517–4529, 2005     

Blue light‐emitting hyperbranched polymers using fluorene‐co‐dibenzothiophene‐S,S‐dioxide as branches

A series of blue light‐emitting hyperbranched polymers comprising poly(fluorene‐co‐dibenzothiophene‐S,S‐dioxide) as the branch and benzene, triphenylamine, or triphenyltriazine as the core were synthesized by an “A₂ + A₂' + B₃” approach of Suzuki polymerization, respectively. All resulted copolymers exhibited quite comparable thermal properties with the glass transition temperatures in the range of 59–68 °C and relatively high decomposition temperatures over 420 °C. Photoluminescent spectra exhibited slight variation with the molar ratio of the dibenzothiophene‐S,S‐dioxide unit and the size of the core units. Polymer light‐emitting devices demonstrated blue emission with excellent stability of electroluminescence. Copolymers based on smaller core units of benzene and triphenylamine exhibited enhanced device performances regarding to that of triphenyltriazine. With the device configuration of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/polymer/CsF/Al, a maximum luminous efficiency of 4.5 cd A^?1 was obtained with Commission Internationale de L'.Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.16, 0.19) for the copolymer PFSO15B. These results indicated that hyperbranched structure can be a promising strategy to attain spectrally stable blue‐light‐emitting polymers with high efficiency. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 1043–1051     

White electroluminescence from a single polyfluorene containing bis‐DCM units

A series of fluorene‐based copolymers composed of blue‐ and orange‐light‐emitting comonomers were synthesized through palladium‐catalyzed Suzuki coupling reactions. 9,9‐Dihexylfluorene and 2‐(2,6‐bis‐{2‐[1‐(9,9‐dihexyl‐9H‐fluoren‐2‐yl)‐1,2,3,4‐tetrahydroquinolin‐6‐yl]‐vinyl}‐pyran‐4‐ylidene)‐malononitrile (DCMF) were used as the blue‐ and orange‐light‐emitting chromophores, respectively. The resulting single polymers exhibited simultaneous blue (423/450 nm) and orange (580–600 nm) emissions from these two chromophores. By adjusting the fluorene and DCMF contents, white light emission could be obtained from a single polymer; a device with an ITO/PEDOT:PSS/polymer/Ca/Al configuration was found to exhibit pure white electroluminescence with Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.33, 0.31), a maximum brightness of 1180 cd/m², and a current efficiency of 0.60 cd/A. Furthermore, the white light emission of this device was found to be very stable with respect to variation of the driving voltage. The CIE coordinates of the device were (0.32, 0.29), (0.32, 0.29), and (0.33, 0.31) for driving voltages of 7, 8, and 10 V, respectively. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 3380–3390, 2007     

Synthesis of fluorene‐based hyperbranched polymers for solution‐processable blue,green, red,and white light‐emitting devices

For the purpose of making hyperbranched polymer (Hb‐Ps)‐based red, green, blue, and white polymer light‐emitting diodes (PLEDs), three Hb‐Ps Hb‐ terfluorene ( Hb‐TF ), Hb ‐4,7‐bis(9,9′‐dioctylfluoren‐2‐yl)‐2,1,3‐benzothiodiazole ( Hb‐BFBT ), and Hb‐ 4,7‐bis[(9,9′‐dioctylfluoren‐2‐yl)‐thien‐2‐yl]‐2,1,3‐benzothiodiazole ( Hb‐BFTBT ) were synthesized via [2+2+2] polycyclotrimerization of the corresponding diacetylene‐functionalized monomers. All the synthesized polymers showed excellent thermal stability with degradation temperature higher than 355 °C and glass transition temperatures higher than 50 °C. Photoluminance (PL) and electroluminance (EL) spectra of the polymers indicate that Hb‐TF , Hb‐BFBT , and Hb‐BFTBT are blue‐green, green, and red emitting materials. Maximum brightness of the double‐layer devices of Hb‐TF , Hb‐BFBT , and Hb‐BFTBT with the device configuration of indium tin oxide/poly(3,4‐ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate)/light‐emitting polymer/CsF/Al are 48, 42, and 29 cd/m²; the maximum luminance efficiency of the devices are 0.01, 0.02, and 0.01 cd/A. By using host–guest doped system, saturated red electrophosphorescent devices with a maximum luminance efficiency of 1.61 cd/A were obtained when Hb‐TF was used as a host material doped with Os(fptz)₂(PPh₂Me₂)₂ as a guest material. A maximum luminance efficiency of 3.39 cd/A of a red polymer light‐emitting device was also reached when Hb‐BFTBT was used as the guest in the PFO (Poly(9,9‐dioctylfluorene)) host layer. In addition, a series of efficient white devices were, which show low turn‐on voltage (3.5 V) with highest luminance efficiency of 4.98 cd/A, maximum brightness of 1185 cd/m², and the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates close to ideal white emission (0.33, 0.33), were prepared by using BFBT as auxiliary dopant. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Single layer light‐emitting diodes from copolymers comprised of mesogen‐jacketed polymer containing oxadiazole units and PVK

A series of copolymers PCt‐co‐Poly(N‐vinylcarbazole) were synthesized through common radical polymerization, in which P‐Ct as a kind of mesogen‐jacketed liquid crystalline polymer was introduced, and the effects of copolymers composing variation on the optical properties of the polymers were studied. The structures and properties of the copolymers were characterized and evaluated by thermogravimetric (TGA), UV, photoluminescence (PL), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and electroluminescence (EL) analyses. All the polymers enjoy high thermal stability. PL peaks in the film show blue‐shift compared with in solutions and fluorescent quantum efficiency decreased with the N‐vinylcarbazole (nvk) content increasing, which supported the efficient energy transfer from nvk units to the oxadiazole units. CV revealed that, with the incorporation of nvk to the copolymer, these copolymers had high‐lying HOMO energy levels ranging from ?5.94 to ?6.09 eV. Single‐layer light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) with the configuration of ITO/PEDOT/PCt‐nvk/Mg:Ag/Ag were fabricated, which emit a blue light around 450 and 490 nm with a maximum luminance of 703 cd/m². The device performance varies with the content of nvk and device configuration, with device configuration ( b ) and PCt‐nvk8 giving the best value of external quantum efficiency of 0.27%. We show here that by proper design copolymer structure and modification of device configuration can exhibit strong blue EL in higher external quantum efficiency. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 1843–1851, 2008     

Synthesis,photophysics, and electroluminescent performance of stable blue‐light‐emitting copoly(9,9‐diarylfluorene)s

A series of fluorene derivatives containing nonsymmetric and bulky aromatic groups at C‐9 position were synthesized and used for the preparation of blue‐light‐emitting copolyfluorenes ( P1 – P4 ) by the Suzuki coupling polycondensation. The copolymers were characterized by molecular weight determination, elemental analysis, differential scanning calorimeter, thermogravimetric analysis, absorption and emission spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and differential pulse voltammetry. Their decomposition temperatures and glass transition temperatures are 423–441 °C and >120 °C, respectively. In film state, the copolyfluorenes exhibit blue photoluminescence at 425–450 nm, which remains almost unchanged after annealing at 200 °C in air for 60 min. Polymer light‐emitting diodes [ITO/PEDOT:PSS/ P1 – P4 /Ca(50 nm)/Al(100 nm)] show stable blue‐light emission under device operation with the CIE co‐ordinates being between (0.16, 0.07) and (0.17, 0.09). The light‐emitting diodes devices from P1 and P3 containing electron‐deficient oxadiazole units display enhanced performance, with the maximum brightness and maximum current efficiency being (4510 cd/m² and 2.40 cd/A) and (2930 cd/m², 1.19 cd/A), respectively. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 2821–2834, 2009     

Fluorene‐ and benzimidazole‐based blue light‐emitting copolymers: Synthesis,photophysical properties,and PLED applications

Blue light‐emitting materials are receiving considerable academic and industrial interest due to their potential applications in optoelectronic devices. In this study, blue light‐emitting copolymers based on 9,9′ ‐ dioctylfluorene and 2,2′‐(1,4‐phenylene)‐bis(benzimidazole) moieties were synthesized through palladium‐catalyzed Suzuki coupling reaction. While the copolymer consisting of unsubstituted benzimidazoles (PFBI0) is insoluble in common organic solvents, its counterpart with N‐octyl substituted benzimidazoles (PFBI8) enjoys good solubility in toluene, tetrahydrofuran, dichloromethane (DCM), and chloroform. The PFBI8 copolymer shows good thermal stability, whose glass transition temperature and onset decomposition temperature are 103 and 428 °C, respectively. Its solutions emit blue light efficiently, with the quantum yield up to 99% in chloroform. The electroluminescence (EL) device of PFBI8 with the configuration of indium‐tin oxide/poly(ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonic acid)/PFBI8/1,3,5‐tris(1‐phenyl‐1H‐benzimidazole‐2‐yl)benzene/LiF/Al emits blue light with the maximum at 448 nm. Such unoptimized polymer light‐emitting diode (PLED) exhibits a maximum luminance of 1534 cd/m² with the current efficiency and power efficiency of 0.67 cd/A and 0.20 lm/W, respectively. The efficient blue emission and good EL performance make PFBI8 promising for optoelectronic applications. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Carbazolevinylene‐based polymers and model compounds with oxadiazole and triphenylamine segments: Synthesis,photophysics, and electroluminescence

Two new soluble alternating carbazolevinylene‐based polymers POXD and PTPA as well as the corresponding model compounds MOXD and MTPA were synthesized by Heck coupling. POXD and MOXD contained 2,5‐diphenyloxadiazole segments, while PTPA and MTPA contained triphenylamine segments. All samples displayed high thermal stability. The polymers had higher glass transition temperature (T_g) than their corresponding model compounds. The samples showed absorption maximum at 364–403 nm with optical band gap of 2.62–2.82 eV. They emitted blue‐green light with photoluminescence (PL) emission maximum at 450–501 nm and PL quantum yields in THF solution of 0.15–0.36. The absorption and the PL emission maxima of PTPA and MTPA were blue‐shifted as compared to those of POXD and MOXD . The electroluminescence (EL) spectra of multilayered devices made using four materials exhibited bluish green emissions, which is well consistent with PL spectra. The EL devices made using poly(vinyl carbazole) doped with MOXD and MTPA as emitting materials showed luminances of 12.1 and 4.8 cd m^?2. POXD and PTPA exhibited 25.4, and 96.3 cd m^?2, respectively. The polymer containing the corresponding molecules in the repeating group showed much higher device performances. Additionally, POXD and MOXD exhibited better stability of external quantum efficiency (EQE) and luminous efficiency with current density resulting from enhancing the electron transporting properties. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 5592–5603, 2008     

Iridium complex grafted to 3,6‐carbazole‐alt‐tetraphenylsilane copolymers for blue electrophosphorescence

We designed a 3,6‐dibromo‐9‐hexyl‐9H‐carbazole derivative with the blue emissive iridium complex bis[2‐(4,6‐difluorophenyl)pyridyl‐N,C^2′](picolinato)iridium(III) (FIrpic) linked at the alkyl terminal. Based on this monomer, novel 3,6‐carbazole‐alt‐tetraphenylsilane copolymers grafted with FIrpic were synthesized by palladium‐catalyzed Suzuki coupling reaction, and the content of FIrpic in the polymers could be controlled by feed ratio of the monomers. The polymer films mainly show blue emission from FIrpic, and the emission intensity from the polymer backbones is much weaker compared with the doped analogues, which demonstrates an efficient energy transfer from polymeric host to covalently bonded guest. The phase separation in the polymers was suppressed, which can be identified by atomic force microscopy and designed electroluminescent (EL) devices. EL devices based on the polymers exhibited blue phosphorescence from FIrpic. The luminous efficiency of preliminary devices reached 2.3 cd/A, and the efficiency roll‐off at high current densities was suppressed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 1859–1865, 2010     

Synthesis and characterization of new light‐emitting copolymers in polymeric‐light‐emitting‐diode device fabrications

A series of thiophene‐containing photoactive copolymers consisting of alternating conjugated and nonconjugated segments were synthesized. The ¹H NMR spectra corroborated the well‐defined structures, and the copolymers not only were soluble in common organic solvents but also had high glass‐transition temperatures (ca. 130 °C) and good thermal stability up to 390 °C. Introducing aliphatic functional groups, such as alkyl or alkoxyl, into chromophores of the copolymers redshifted the photoluminescence spectra and lowered the optical bandgaps. The electrochemical bandgaps calculated from cyclic voltammetry agreed with the optical bandgaps and thus indicated that electroluminescence and photoluminescence originated from the same excited state. The energy levels (highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital) of all the copolymers were lower than those of poly[2‐methoxy‐5‐(2′‐ethylhexyloxy)‐1.4‐phenylenevinylene] MEH–PPV, indicating balanced hole and electron injection, which led to improved performance in both single‐layer and double‐layer polymeric‐light‐emitting‐diode devices fabricated with these copolymers. All the copolymers emitted bluish‐green or green light above the threshold bias of 5.0 V under ambient conditions. At the maximum bias of 10 V, the electroluminescence of a device made of poly(2‐{4‐[2‐(3‐ethoxy phenyl)ethylene]phenyl}‐5‐{4‐[2‐(3‐ethoxy,4‐1,8‐octanedioxy phenyl)ethylene]phenyl}thiophene) was 5836 cd/m². The external electroluminescence efficiency decreased with the lifetime as the polymer degraded. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 3954–3966, 2004     

D–π–A polysulfones for blue electroluminescence

Donor–π–acceptor type fluorene‐based copolymers with a sulfone unit were designed and synthesized for application in efficient pure‐blue light emitting. The electroluminescence behaviors of these copolymers were investigated by fabricating light‐emitting diodes and electrochemical cell devices. The former device little functioned but the latter worked well. The electrochemical cell devices having a configuration of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/copolymer:ionic liquid/Al exhibited purplish blue electroluminescence with an emission maximum at 434 nm (CIE coordinates (x, y) = (0.17, 0.10)) measured at 7 V. The initial positive scan of the D–π–A polysulfone based light emitting electrochemical cell with a sweep rate of 0.1 V s^?1 afforded a maximum luminance of 1080 cd m^?2 with a current efficiency of 1.96 cd A^?1 at an operating voltage of 12.5 V. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016 , 54, 3454–3461     

Phenothiazine‐S,S‐dioxide‐ and fluorene‐based light‐emitting polymers: Introduction of e−‐deficient S,S‐dioxide into e−‐rich phenothiazine

A novel series of poly(10‐hexyl‐phenothiazine‐S,S‐dioxide‐3,7‐diyl) and poly(9,9′‐dioctyl‐fluorene‐2,7‐diyl‐alt‐10‐hexyl‐3,7‐phenothiazine‐S,S‐dioxide) (PFPTZ‐SS) compounds were synthesized through Ni(0)‐mediated Yamamoto polymerization and Pd(II)‐catalyzed Suzuki polymerization. The synthesized polymers were characterized by ¹H NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis and showed higher glass transition temperatures than that of pristine polyfluorene. In terms of photoluminescence (PL), the PFPTZ‐SS compounds were highly fluorescent with bright blue emissions in the solid state. Light‐emitting devices were fabricated with these polymers in an indium tin oxide/poly(3,4‐ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate)/polymer/Ca/Al configuration. The electroluminescence (EL) of the copolymers differed from the PL characteristics: the EL device exhibited a redshifted greenish‐blue emission in contrast to the blue emission observed in the PL. Additionally, this unique phenothiazine‐S,S‐dioxide property, triggered by the introduction of an electron‐deficient SO₂ unit into the electron‐rich phenothiazine, gave rise to improvements in the brightness, maximum luminescence intensity, and quantum efficiency of the EL devices fabricated with PFPTZ‐SS. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 1236–1246, 2007     

High‐efficiency blue light‐emitting polymers based on 3,6‐silafluorene and 2,7‐silafluorene

A novel blue‐emitting polymer based on 3,6‐silafluorene and 2,7‐silafluorene was synthesized via the Suzuki polycondensation. The resulting polymers are readily soluble in common organic solvents, such as toluene, xylene, THF, and chloroform. The thermal, electrochemical, photophysical, and electroluminescence properties of the resulting polymers were investigated. The device fabricated from the copolymer with a configuration of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/PVK/polymer/Ba/Al exhibited an external quantum efficiency of 1.95%, a luminous efficiency of 1.69 cd A^?1 and a maximal brightness of 6000 cd m^?2. It has been found that the incorporation of the 3,6‐silafluorene unit into the poly(2,7‐silafluorene) main chain can not only improve the color purity of the devices from the resulting copolymer but also enhance its device efficiency. Moreover, no undesired long‐wavelength green emission was observed in the PL spectra of P36‐27SiF90 compared to that of PFO with a dominating emission at 500–600 nm after thermal annealing at 200 °C for 8 h. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 4941–4949, 2007     

Synthesis and characterization of fluorene‐based copolymers containing benzothiadiazole derivative for light‐emitting diodes applications

Five new thermally robust electroluminescent fluorene‐based conjugated copolymers, including poly[2,7‐(9,9‐dioctylfluorene)‐co‐4,7‐{5,6‐bis(3,7‐dimethyloctyloxymethyl)‐2,1,3‐(benzothiadiazole)}] ( PFO‐P2C₁₀BT ) were synthesized and used to fabricate the efficient polymer light‐emitting diodes (PLEDs). The glass transition temperatures of the polymers were found to be higher than that of poly(9,9‐dialkylfluorenes) and are in the range 113–165 °C. We fabricated PLEDs in indium‐tin oxide/PEDOT/light‐emitting polymer/cathode configurations using either double‐layer LiF/Al or triple‐layer Alq₃/LiF/Al cathode structures. The new copolymers were found to have emission colors that vary from greenish blue (491 nm) to green (543 nm) depending on the copolymer composition. The maximum brightness and luminance efficiency of these PLEDs were found to be up to 5347 cd/m² and 1.51 cd/A at 10 V, respectively. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 6762–6769, 2008     

Synthesis and electro‐optical properties of light‐emitting polymers containing oxadiazole derivatives for light‐emitting diodes applications

Two PPV‐based bipolar polymers containing 1,3,4‐oxadiazole pendant groups were synthesized via the Gilch polymerization reaction for use in light‐emitting diodes (LEDs). The resulting polymers were characterized using ¹H and ¹³C NMR, elemental analysis, DSC, and TGA. These polymers were found to be soluble in common organic solvents and are easily spin‐coated onto glass substrates, producing high optical quality thin films without defects. The electro‐optical properties of ITO/PEDOT/polymer/Al devices based on these polymers were investigated using UV‐visible, PL, and EL spectroscopy. The turn‐on voltages of the OC₁Oxa‐PPV and OC₁₀Oxa‐PPV devices were found to be 8.0 V. The maximum brightness and luminescence efficiency of the OC₁Oxa‐PPV device were found to be 544 cd/m² at 19 V and 0.15 cd/A, respectively. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 1098–1110, 2008     

Synthesis and electroluminescence properties of white‐light single polyfluorenes with high‐molecular weight by click reaction

We reported a new way to synthesize single‐chain white light‐emitting polyfluorene (WPF) with an increased molecular weight using azide‐alkyne click reaction. Four basic polymers with specific end‐capping, which exhibited high‐glass transition temperatures (T_g > 100 °C) and excellent thermal stability, were used as foundations of the WPF's synthesis; a blue‐light polymer (PFB2) end‐capped with azide groups can easily react with acetylene end‐capped polymers (PFB1, PFG1, and PFR1, which are emitting blue‐, green‐ and red‐light, respectively) to form triazole‐ring linkages in polar solvents such as N,N‐dimethylforamide/toluene co‐solvent at moderate temperature of 100 °C, even without metal‐catalyst. Several WPFs that consist of these four basic polymers in certain ratios were derived, and the polymer light‐emitting diode device based on the high‐molecular weight WPF was achieved and demonstrated a maximum brightness of 7551 cd/m² (at 12.5 V) and a maximum yield of 5.5 cd/A with Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage coordinates of (0.30, 0.33) using fine‐tuned WPF5 as emitting material. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011     

New blue electroluminescent n‐type polyfluorene copolymers with a 1,3,4‐oxadiazole unit in the main chain

Novel polyfluorene copolymers alternately having an 1,3,4‐oxadiazole unit in the main chain were prepared by both one‐step and two‐step methods for polyoxadiazole synthesis. They displayed highly efficient blue photoluminescence, the properties of which were affected by the extent of conjugation and the changes in the electron density by a side chain. An electrochemical analysis of the polymers using cyclic voltammetry suggested that they could be used as electron‐transport/hole‐blocking materials as well as blue emission materials for polymer light‐emitting diodes. A simple double‐layer device consisting of poly(N‐vinylcarbazole) as a hole‐transport layer and poly[(9,9′‐didodecylfluorene‐2,7‐diyl)‐alt‐((1,4‐bis(1,3,4‐oxadiazole)‐2,5‐di(2‐ethylhexyloxy)phenylene)‐5,5′‐diyl)] as an emission layer exhibited narrow blue electroluminescence with a maximum at 430 nm. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 1058–1068, 2004