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Restraining the associations of anthracene fluorophore by chemically linking to poly(methyl methacrylate)
Author(s) -
Su FuKun,
Hong JinLong,
Lin LiehLi
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.26266
Subject(s) - anthracene , monomer , methyl methacrylate , polymerization , polymer chemistry , photochemistry , quantum yield , materials science , polymer , moiety , chemistry , fluorescence , organic chemistry , composite material , physics , quantum mechanics
Associations (dimer or aggregate) of anthracene (An) fluorophores tend to interrupt the monomer emission and reduce the quantum yield (Φ PL ); therefore, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) chain was used in this study to chemically link to anthracene and to block the mutual associations among the anthracene fluorophores. With this aim, the target polymers were prepared by anionic polymerizations with 9,10‐dibromoanthracene/ s ‐butyllithium as initiating system to proceed polymerizations of methyl methacrylate (MMA) directly or in the presence of 1,1‐diphenylethylene (DPE). Use of DPE before addition of MMA produces stable initiating anionic species and avoids potential side reactions during polymerization; however, it also introduces four β‐phenylene rings around the central anthracene ring, which interfere with the corresponding emission pattern and reduce the Φ PL (32%) value due to potential interactions between phenylene rings and anthracene. On the contrast, polymerization without participation of DPE results in polymer with central anthracene ring directly connected to two PMMA chains, which gives clean vibronic emission pattern with limited association emissions and enhanced Φ PL (52%) value. Physical blending of anthracene by PMMA is less efficient to restrain the associations and results in a film of lower Φ PL (20%). © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008