Collapse of stiff conjugated polymers with chemical defects into ordered, cylindrical conformations

Dehong Hu, Ji Yu, Kim Wong, Biman Bagchi, Peter J. Rossky and Paul F. Barbara ()
Additional contact information
Dehong Hu: University of Texas
Ji Yu: University of Texas
Kim Wong: University of Texas
Biman Bagchi: Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit, Indian Institute of Science
Peter J. Rossky: University of Texas
Paul F. Barbara: University of Texas

Nature, 2000, vol. 405, issue 6790, 1030-1033

Abstract: Abstract The optical, electronic and mechanical properties of synthetic and biological materials consisting of polymer chains depend sensitively on the conformation adopted by these chains. The range of conformations available to such systems has accordingly been of intense fundamental1,2 as well as practical3,4,5,6 interest, and distinct conformational classes have been predicted, depending on the stiffness of the polymer chains and the strength of attractive interactions between segments within a chain7,8,9,10. For example, flexible polymers should adopt highly disordered conformations resembling either a random coil or, in the presence of strong intrachain attractions, a so-called ‘molten globule’2,10. Stiff polymers with strong intrachain interactions, in contrast, are expected to collapse into conformations with long-range order, in the shape of toroids or rod-like structures8,9,11. Here we use computer simulations to show that the anisotropy distribution obtained from polarization spectroscopy measurements on individual poly[2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethylhexyl)oxy-1,4-phenylenevinylene] polymer molecules is consistent with this prototypical stiff conjugated polymer adopting a highly ordered, collapsed conformation that cannot be correlated with ideal toroid or rod structures. We find that the presence of so-called ‘tetrahedral chemical defects’, where conjugated carbon–carbon links are replaced by tetrahedral links, divides the polymer chain into structurally identifiable quasi-straight segments that allow the molecule to adopt cylindrical conformations. Indeed, highly ordered, cylindrical conformations may be a critical factor in dictating the extraordinary photophysical properties of conjugated polymers, including highly efficient intramolecular energy transfer and significant local optical anisotropy in thin films.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35016520 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:405:y:2000:i:6790:d:10.1038_35016520

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35016520

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().