Photocrosslinkable hyperbranched polyfluorenes containing oxidiazole: Synthesis, photophysics and electroluminescence

Background: Crosslinkable hyperbranched polymers have great potential for use in organic light-emitting devices and photovoltaics. With this in mind, two crosslinkable hyperbranched polyfluorenes, P5 and P6, containing oxadiazole as the core, and linear polyfluorene P0 were synthesized via palladium-catalyzed Suzuki coupling. A device was also made. Results: The resulting polymers were characterized using NMR, gel permeation chromatography, differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis. The spectral behavior of the polymers was also investigated. Compared with uncrosslinked P5 and P6, the photoluminescence spectra of crosslinked P5 and P6 were little influenced by the crosslinking. After annealing for 3 h at 200°C in air, the photoluminescence of P6 (with a greater content of branched units) showed excellent stability compared with that of P5 and P0. The results for the device revealed that photocrosslinking improves the stability of the electroluminescence. Conclusion: The crosslinkable polymers obtained can be used in multilayer devices.