Preparation of highly oriented polyarylenevinylene thin films by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique

Abstract

We obtained three kinds of polyarylenevinylene (poly ( p-phenylenevinylene), poly(2,5-dimethoxy- p-phenylenevinylene) and poly(2,5-thienylenevinylene)) thin films with the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. Stable polyarylenevinylene precursor-anionic amphiphile complex monolayers were formed at the air-precursor aqueous solution interface through adsorption of the precursors onto an amphiphilic monolayer. The polyion complex monolayers could be transferred on substrates by the LB technique. The polyarylenevinylene precursor LB films were converted to polyarylenevinylene films with a heat treatment under nitrogen flow. Extension of the mean π conjugation length and planar orientation of the π conjugation sequences were realized in the poly ( p-phenylenevinylene) and poly(2,5-dimethoxy- p-phenylenevinylene) LB films.