Stretchable and luminescent networks from copper(I)-coordinated main-chain thioether polymers

Abstract

Emissive organometallic polymers integrated with the properties of conventional polymers have attracted increasing attention from researchers. Copper (I)-thioether (Cu(I)-thioether) complexes of small molecule has been extensively reported, which is in sharply contrast with much less investigated Cu(I)-thioether polymers. In this work, Cu(I)-thioether coordination structure has been successfully combined with polymer ligands to form emissive polymer networks. The resulted hybrid networks overcame many challenges in the Cu(I)-thioether small compounds. The as-prepared Cu(I)-thioether networks exhibited much improved thermal stability (degradation temperature: 220 °C) compared with Cu(I)-thioether molecular clusters. Besides, the Cu(I)-thioether networks can be processed into uniform free-standing film with excellent stretchability (breaking strain up to 200%) which cannot be realized in the Cu(I)-thioether small molecular system. Finally, the luminescent property of copper-thiother was inherited in the polymer networks and emissive polymer films with good transparency, excellent thermal stability and high stretchability. Interestingly, the dynamic coordination between thioether and copper (I) enabled the self-healing ability of the polymer films. The damaged emissive and stretchable films were able to be autonomous self-healed under ambient conditions. This work sheds lights on the design and fabrication of Cu(I)-thioether materials for advanced applications.