Efficient energy transfer from polysilane molecules and its application to electroluminescence

Since the first observation of an efficient resonant energy transfer between polydihexylsilane and polydiphenylsilane, we have studied the energy transfer and radiative properties of polysilanes and their energy-matched counterparts. The synthesis of soluble polysilanes enabled us to prepare such pairs in a thin film simply by a spin-coating technique. The intermolecular energy transfer from conductive poly(m-hexoxyphenyl)phenylsilane was utilized for electroluminescence (EL) of perylene (blue), coumarin 6 (green), 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-methyl-6-(p-dimethylaminostyryl)-4H-pyran and Zinc tetra-phenylporphyrin (red). A white EL was also observed by mixing four dye molecules. Photo-oxidation during irradiating an ultraviolet light was suppressed by synthesizing water-soluble polysilanes and embedding it inside sol–gel glass matrices. These results imply that polysilanes have a possibility to open new fields of optical applications.