Photocontrolled living polymerizations.

Living polymerizations involve the creation of polymer chains without significant irreversible chain transfer or chain termination. Such processes are widely used to access well-defined macromolecular materials with controlled architectures, such as block and star polymers. Although this concept was first realized for anionic polymerizations in the 1950s, many key recent advances have been made, most notably in the area of radical polymerization. Here, we report a living photopolymerization that involves photoexcited monomers. Exposure of metal-containing ferrocenophane monomers to Pyrex-filtered light from a mercury lamp (lambda>310 nm) or to bright sunlight in the presence of an anionic initiator leads to living polymerizations, in which the conversion and molecular weight of the resulting polymer can be controlled by the irradiation time. Photoirradiation selectively weakens the iron-cyclopentadienyl bond in the monomer, allowing the use of moderately basic and highly functional-group-tolerant initiators. The polymerization proceeds through attack of the initiator and propagating anion on the iron atom of the photoexcited monomer and, remarkably, the polymerization rate decreases with increasing temperature. Block copolymer formation is possible when the light source is alternately switched on and off in between sequential addition of different monomers, providing unprecedented, photocontrolled access to new types of functional polymers.

Quenching platinum octaethylporphine phosphorescence in solution by poly(ferrocenylsilane).

We describe experiments that determine the quenching kinetics by poly(ferrocenylsilane) (PFS) for platinum octaethylporphine (PtOEP) phosphorescence in toluene solution. The phosphorescence quenching process was interpreted in terms of diffusion-controlled kinetics. Pulsed-gradient spin-echo nuclear magnetic resonance (PGSE NMR) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) were used to characterize the diffusion behavior of PFS and PtOEP in toluene solution. We found that the ferrocene group present in the repeat unit of polymer backbone is a good quencher for PtOEP phosphorescence. Quenching by the polymer involves the entire PFS polymer chain instead of individual ferrocene groups. The intrinsic quenching ability of PFS was found to be higher than that of a model compound, Bu-FS, that contains a single ferrocene group.

Solution-processed PbS quantum dot infrared photodetectors and photovoltaics.

In contrast to traditional semiconductors, conjugated polymers provide ease of processing, low cost, physical flexibility and large area coverage. These active optoelectronic materials produce and harvest light efficiently in the visible spectrum. The same functions are required in the infrared for telecommunications (1,300-1,600 nm), thermal imaging (1,500 nm and beyond), biological imaging (transparent tissue windows at 800 nm and 1,100 nm), thermal photovoltaics (>1,900 nm), and solar cells (800-2,000 nm). Photoconductive polymer devices have yet to demonstrate sensitivity beyond approximately 800 nm (refs 2,3). Sensitizing conjugated polymers with infrared-active nanocrystal quantum dots provides a spectrally tunable means of accessing the infrared while maintaining the advantageous properties of polymers. Here we use such a nanocomposite approach in which PbS nanocrystals tuned by the quantum size effect sensitize the conjugated polymer poly[2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethylhexyloxy-p-phenylenevinylene)] (MEH-PPV) into the infrared. We achieve, in a solution-processed device and with sensitivity far beyond 800 nm, harvesting of infrared-photogenerated carriers and the demonstration of an infrared photovoltaic effect. We also make use of the wavelength tunability afforded by the nanocrystals to show photocurrent spectra tailored to three different regions of the infrared spectrum.

Polyferrocenes: metallopolymers with tunable and high refractive indices.

The refractive index, molar refraction and Abbe number of polyferrocene derivatives are reported and the values indicate that these materials are very promising for a range of photonics applications.