Influence from Thermal Elimination Temperature of Precursor Polymer and Film‐forming Methods on the Photophysics of the Poly(2,5‐didodecyloxy‐p‐phenylenevinylene)

A series of poly(p‐phenylenevinylene)s (PPVs) with good solubility were synthesized from thermal elimination of precursor poly(2,5‐didodecyloxy‐p‐phenylenevinylene) at different temperature via Wessling method. The polymer photophysics were influenced by the thermal elimination condition, which was consistent with NMR and IR characterizations. The additional absorption peak at longer wavelength and the red‐shifted emission maximum both in solution and in film, for PPVs obtained at high elimination temperature, indicated the existence of longer conjugated blocks in these systems. The emission maximum for drop‐cast film (436 nm) for PPV obtained under 200°C (PPV200) was 16 nm blue shifted to the spin‐coated films (452 nm) or 29 nm to the solution (465 nm). The SEM study showed drop‐cast film had the morphology of isolated conjugated particles in the matrix while blurry linear structure was found for spin‐coated film, which was consistent with the photophysics. The discussion about this difference was carried out based on the consideration of the flexibility of the polymer chains and different conjugated length of PPV in different states.