Synthesis, characterization, optical and electrical properties of bis(phenylvinyl)anthracene-based polymers

A series of bis(phenylvinyl)anthracene-based polymers containing different lengths of polar ethylene glycol groups in the main chain (P1–3) were efficiently synthesized by Wittig polycondensation. These polymers are fully soluble in volatile solvents, which helped a lot to obtain high quality films. Moreover, these semi-conducting materials exhibited semi-crystalline morphology with relatively high glass transition temperature. In this article, the UV–visible absorption and fluorescence properties of P1–3 were studied consequently both in solution and as thin solid film: tan absorption-onset at 433 nm was observed and all these bis(phenylvinyl)anthracene-based polymers (P1–3) show a blue emission in solution, fluorescence quantum efficiencies being respectively 52% for P1, 75% for P2 and 67% for P3. In addition, the HOMO/LUMO energy levels were evaluated by cyclic voltammetry measurements and indicate a p-type semi-conducting materials. Finally, the electrical properties of P1–3 were investigated by recording current-tension characteristics and these experimental results were modeled by the current space-charge-limited (SCLC) mechanism.