Novel light-emitting polymers derived from fluorene and maleimide

Abstract

A series of novel soluble light-emitting polymers derived from fluorene and maleimide were synthesized by a palladium-catalyzed Suzuki coupling reaction. The resulting polymers were characterized by NMR, FT-IR, elemental analysis, DSC, TGA and GPC. These polymers show very strong yellow PL emission and good solubility in common organic solvents, such as CH₂Cl₂, CH₃Cl, toluene and xylene. DSC and TGA studies reveal that the novel polymers possess excellent thermal stability with high glass transition temperatures (T_g) and onset decomposition temperatures (T_d). Cyclic voltammetry measurements demonstrated that the polymers have high electron affinity and good hole and electron transporting properties. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) with the configuration ITO/PEDOT : PSS/polymer/Mg:Ag were fabricated. All the LEDs show low turn-on voltages and good electroluminescence properties with yellow emission.