Theoretical characterization of the electronic structure of polymeric systems combining disilanylene and /spl pi/-conjugated units

Summary form only given. Polymeric organosilicon systems are in the forefront of research, due to their intriguing properties (semiconducting behavior, photoconduction, non-linear optical properties, and thermo- and piezochromism). The fundamental skeletons of most of these polymers consist of a /spl sigma/-electron network formed by silicon-silicon bonds. Recently, polymeric organosilicon systems containing a regular alternation of a disilanylene unit and carbon /spl pi/-conjugated moiety as phenylene, ethynylene, or ethenylene have been synthesized. The purpose of this contribution is to perform a detailed study of the electronic structure of polymers containing alternated disilanylene and carbon /spl pi/-conjugated units. We have made use of the valence effective Hamiltonian (VEH) method to obtain reliable electronic band structures, as it has been widely showed that provides accurate predictions of essential electronic properties of both organopolysilanes and /spl pi/-conjugated polymers.