Recent Developments in the Chemistry and Applications of Electroactive Conjugated Polymers

Polymeric nonlinear optical materials

“…For example, the precursors shown in figure 2 undergo photo-oxidative bleaching of the polyene sequences when irradiated with ultraviolet (uv) in the presence of air, the areas of film so exposed are no longer able to be thermally converted to D-PA and become a transparent insulating film, whereas unirradiated sections of the film are thermally converted to D-PA by the usual elimination mechanism and with the usual reduction in volume. Irradiation of thin films of precursor through a mask followed by heating therefore allows the production of high-resolution (less than 1 pm) relief images which define patterns of the conjugated polymer D-PA in an insulating matrix (Allen 1990). Another consequence of this methodology for the production of D-PA is that the precursor materials can be oriented by stretching; subsequent thermal conversion gives D-PA in which the polyene chains are oriented predominantly in the direction of the stretching (Leising 1984).…”