The coupling of substituted
carbazole compounds through carbon–carbon
bond formation upon one-electron oxidation is shown to be a highly
versatile approach to the formation of redox polymer films. Although
the polymerization of single carbazole units has been proposed earlier,
we show that by tethering pairs of carbazoles double sequential dimerization
allows for facile formation of redox polymer films with fine control
over film thickness. We show that the design of the monomers and in
particular the bridging units is key to polymer formation, with the
diaminobenzene motif proving advantageous, in terms of the matching
to the redox potentials of the monomer and polymer film and thereby
avoiding limitations in film thickness (autoinsulation), but introduces
unacceptable instability due to the intrinsic redox activity of this
moiety. The use of a diimide protecting group both avoids complications
due to p-diamino-benzene redox chemistry and provides
for a redox polymer in which the photoluminescence of the bis-carbazole
moiety can be switched reversibly (on/off) with redox control. The
monomer design approach is versatile enabling facile incorporation
of additional functional units, such as naphthalene. Here we show
that a multicomponent carbazole/naphthalene containing monomer (APCNDI) can form redox polymer films showing both p- and n-
conductivity under ambient conditions and allows access to five distinct
redox states, and a complex electrochromic response covering the whole
of the UV/vis–NIR spectral region. The highly effective quenching
of the photoluminescence of both components in poly-APCNDI enables detailed characterization of the redox polymer films. The
poly-APCNDI films show extensive charge trapping, which
can be read out spectroscopically in the case of films and is characterized
as kinetic rather than chemical in origin on the basis of UV/vis–NIR
absorption and resonance Raman spectroscopic analyses. The strong
resonantly enhanced Raman scattering for the various oxidized and
reduced states of APCNDI enables nondestructive “read-out”
of the state of the polymer, including that in which charges are trapped
kinetically at the surface, making poly-APCNDI highly
suitable for application as a component in organic nonvolatile memory
devices.