Fluoro‐protected carbazole main‐chain polymers as a new class of stable blue emitting polymers

The protection of the 3,6‐positions of 9‐alkyl‐9H‐carbazole repeat units with fluorine substituents in 2,7‐linked main‐chain polymers as well as in copolymers with triaryl amine repeat units affords blue emitting materials with enhanced electrolytic stability. The electronic conjugation of this new class of materials is more extended than that of the equivalent polymers where the 3,6‐positions are protected with methyl substitutions as a result of the smaller steric hindrance of their fluorine substituents. Attachment of fluorine‐protecting groups at the 3,6‐positions of carbazole repeat units in the homopolymers resulted in materials with relatively high ionization potentials (5.71 eV). However, introduction of triaryl amine comonomers as alternating repeat units provided carbazole/triaryl amine copolymers with a low ionization potential (5.25 eV), a very high quantum yield of fluorescence in solution (0.96), and narrow emission bands full width at half maximum (FWHM) = 52 nm]. The preparation of this new class of materials together with a study of their electronic and photophysical properties is presented. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.