Highly efficient light-emitting polymers have become possible by molecular engineering. Photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield above 90% in the solid state is reported for the alternating block copolymer of distyrylbenzene. We conclude that the alternate arrangement of conjugated and nonconjugated segments with surrounding side groups for chromophores effectively confine the excitons for radiative emission. The effectiveness of the exciton confinement is confirmed through the temperature independence of the PL quantum yield. The time-resolved PL decay measurement supports this model through the independence of the PL yield on temperature and emission wavelength. The synthesized copolymers have been employed for the fabrication of electroluminescent (EL) devices, demonstrating high external EL efficiency with low operation threshold.
The photoluminesence (PL) quantum efficiency of poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV) varies with preparation and processing. We report the achievement of nearly 100% PL quantum efficiency through design and synthesis of alternating rigid conjugated segments of dimethoxy -PV (three dimethoxy -phenyl and two vinyl units) and flexible nonconjugated segments along the polymer backbone. There is enhanced solubility in desired solvents and increased interchain separation through the incorporation of the methoxy sidegroups, forming poly [1,6-hexanedioxy -2,6-dimethoxy-1,4-phenylene]-1,2-ethenylene-[3,6-dimethoxy-1,4-phenylene]-1,2-ethenylene-[3,5-dimethoxy-1,4-phenylene], or GDBBC. The nearly temperature-independence of the PL decay at different emission wavelengths of the alternating block co-polymer (ABC) shows that the excitons are highly localized due to the blocking by non-conjugated segments as well as due to increased interchain separation due to the methoxy sidegroups. The contrasting temperature- and time- dependent results for the corresponding PV oligomer and PPV, supports the role of reduced exciton migration in achieving high quantum efficiency. The results are compared to the exciton confinement at the interface of light emitting electron and hole transporting polymers, forming an exciplex, for which the luminescence decay is also temperature independent. Electroluminescent devices using GDBBC as the lightemitting layer and incorporating poly[1-phenyl-2-(p-n-carbazolylphenyl) acetylene], (PDPA-Cz), as hole transporting layer, in the structure ITO/PDPACz/GDBBC/Alq/MgAg have ~1% external quantum efficiency with green emission from the GDBBC. EL devices based on exciplex emission are also discussed.
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