Synthesis of electroluminescent copoly(aryl ether)s containing alternate 1,4‐distyrylbenzene derivatives and aromatic 1,3,4‐oxadiazole or 3,3″‐terphenyldicarbonitrile segments

New copoly(aryl ether)s ( P1 – P3 ) containing alternate 2,5‐dihexyloxy‐1,4‐di(m‐ethoxystyryl)benzene ( P1 , P2 ) or 2,5‐dihexyloxy‐1,4‐distyrylbenzene ( P3 ) chromophores and aromatic 1,3,4‐oxadiazole ( P1 ) or 3,3″‐terphenyldicarbonitrile ( P2 , P3 ) segments were prepared by Horner reaction ( P1 and P2 ) or nucleophilic displacement reaction ( P3 ). They are basically amorphous materials with 5% weight‐loss temperature above 410 °C. Their absorption, photoluminescence spectra, and quantum yields are dependent on the composition of the isolated fluorophores. The emissions are exclusively dominated by 1,4‐distyrylbenzene segments via excitation energy transfer from electron‐transporting 1,3,4‐oxadiazole ( P1 ) or 3,3″‐terphenyldicarbonitrile ( P2 , P3 ) chromophores. The HOMO and LUMO energy levels have been estimated from their cyclic voltammograms, and the observations confirm that oxidation and reduction start from the emitting 1,4‐distyrylbenzene and electron‐transporting segments, respectively, indicating that both carriers affinity can be enhanced simultaneously. Among the two‐layer PLED devices (ITO/PEDOT/ P1 – P3 /Al), P1 exhibits the best performance with a turn‐on field of 4 × 10⁵ V/cm and a maximum luminance of 225 cd/m². However, P2 emits green–yellow light (555 nm), owing to the excimer emission. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 5009–5022, 2005