Directional synthesis of a dye-linked conducting homopolymer

We report a new synthesis of a 10,20-diphenyl-5,15-bis(4-cyanophenyl)porphyrin (1) and its reduction to give 10,20-diphenyl-5,15-bis(4-formylphenyl)porphyrin (2). When the conducting polymer poly(2',5'-dioctyl-4,4' '-terphenylenecyanovinylene) was prepared in the presence of 2, we obtained a three-domain structure, compound 3, consisting of two homopolymer blocks (J domains) with the porphyrin dye molecule (P domain) in the middle. The JPJ assembly was subjected to photophysical studies where we showed that the J domain could serve as a light-harvesting antenna for the P domain.