Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals Science and Technology. Section A. Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.365, 1295-1302, 2001
Synthesis and properties of liquid crystalline polythiophene and polythienylenevinylene derivatives
Liquid crystalline polythiophene (LC-PTs) and polythienylenevinylene (LC-PTVs) derivatives with various length of methylene spacer in the LC substituents were synthesized. LC-M were prepared through dehalogenative polycondensation using Ni(0) complex, and LC-PTVs through Stille reaction followed by Heck reaction. The polymers showed enantiotropic smectic phase. Both LC-PTs and LC-PTVs were fluorescent with greenish yellow and/or green colors. The polymers were macroscopically aligned under magnetic field of 10 Tesla, Alignment of the polymers was confirmed by polarizing optical microscope, X-ray diffraction and polarized infrared spectra. The aligned polymers showed not only anisotropic electrical conductivity but also dichroic fluorescence. It is found that the LC conjugated polymers synthesized here are promising materials with linearly polarized luminescence.
Keywords:polythiophene;polythienylenevinylene;liquid crystallinity;anisotropic conductivity;dichroic fluorescence