The Optical, Electrochemical and Structure/Property Relationships of Poly(Heteroaromatic Vinylenes

Convenient conducting polymer processibility has been achieved recently by the development of soluble precursor polymers for polyacetylene (PA)1, polyphenylene (PPP)2, and poly(ppheny1ene vinylene) (PPV)3. In each case, a two-stage route was use+ First, a high molecular weight, soluble, non-conjugated precursor polymer was prepared that could be easily solution cast into films. Then, thermal treatment converted the precursor polymer to the final conjugated polymer. Unfortunately, neither doped PA, doped PPP, nor doped PPV has long term stability in ambient air, which severely limits their usefulness in wide scale electronic applications.