In this review, the main synthetic aspects and properties of fluorinated arylenevinylene compounds, both oligomers and polymers, are summarized and analyzed. Starting from vinyl organotin derivatives and aryl halides, the Stille cross-coupling reaction has been successfully applied as a versatile synthetic protocol to prepare a wide series of π-conjugated compounds, selectively fluorinated on the aromatic and/or vinylene units. The impact of fluoro-functionalization on properties, the solid state organization and intermolecular interactions of the synthesized compounds are discussed, also in comparison with the non-fluorinated counterparts. Luminescent and photovoltaic applications are also discussed, highlighting the role of fluorine on the performance of devices.
Blue‐light‐emitting poly(p‐phenylene vinylene)s with fluorinated vinylene units are presented. It is demonstrated that self‐aggregation governs the strength and polarization of the absorption spectra of thin films of these polymers. This indicates that self‐assembly of the polymer chains in the films provides a means of tuning the electronic and optical properties of the π‐conjugated systems.
A low band-gap copolymer PDTBTFV alternating bis-thienyl-(bis-alkoxy)-benzothiadiazole blocks with difluorovinylene units and its non-fluorinated counterpart PDTBTV have been synthesized and characterized as donor materials in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells with PCBM as the acceptor. The solar cells with the fluorinated polymer show better photovoltaic performances than those recorded with the non-fluorinated material. Comparative spectroscopic and computational studies, together with morphological, electrical and optical characterization of thin films, have been carried out to shed light on the reasons for the improvement of performances as induced by the double bond fluorination. Our study introduces the fluorinated double bond as a new conjugated unit in donor polymers for BHJ solar cells
The use of an amphiphilic aryleneethynylene fluorophore as a plasma membrane marker in fixed and living mammalian cells and liposome model systems is demonstrated. We show here that the optical properties of the novel dye are almost independent on pH, in the range 5.0-8.0. Spectroscopic characterization performed on unilamellar liposomes ascertained that the fluorescence intensity of the aryleneethynylene fluorophore greatly increases after incorporation in lipidic membranes. Experiments performed on different mammalian cells demonstrated that the novel membrane marker exhibits fast staining and a good photostability that make it a suitable tool for live cell imaging. Importantly, the aryleneethynylene fluorophore was also shown to be a fast and reliable blue membrane marker in classical multicolor immunofluorescence experiments. This study adds new important findings to the recent exploitation of the wide class of aryleneethynylene molecules as luminescent markers for biological investigations.
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