Synthesis and luminescent properties of block copolymers based on polyfluorene and polytriphenylamine

For the preparation of block copolymers containing polyfluorene (PF) and hole transporting segment, PF homopolymers with diphenylamine terminals were synthesized by Suzuki coupling polymerization. The terminals of PF were converted to polytriphenylamine (PTPA) block by C–N coupling polymerization to give PTPA-block-PF-block-PTPA (PF-PTPA) triblock copolymers with different PTPA chain lengths. These polymers were soluble in common organic solvents and readily formed thin films by solution processing. All of the polymers exhibited similar UV absorption and PL emission properties both in chloroform solution and in film state. PF-PTPA block copolymers showed relatively high HOMO compared with that of PF by cyclic voltammetry. Compared with corresponding PF homopolymers, the EL devices based on PF-PTPA block copolymers showed higher luminance and current efficiency than those of PF homopolymers because of the improvement of hole injection by the introduction of PTPA segment.