Chemical luminescent polymers

Utilizing these functionalized conducting polymers, a solar cell, an electrochromic device, a chemical luminescent material, a sensor, a polymer battery, etc. can be constructed, in which the functionality is attributed to the incorporated functional molecule. 

Unlike the covalent functionalization approach, noncovalent functionalization provides an alternative method to modify and tailor the surface properties of CNTs in order to increase their solubility in solvents or compatibility with polymer matrix. In this method, the tubular surface of a CNT is noncovalently wrapped with polymer chains due to van der Waals attractive forces or through tt-tt interactions. This noncovalent wrapping approach has also been widely used and is particularly attractive because it offers the possibility of attaching chemical handles without affecting the electronic network of the nanotubes [42-45]. Coleman et al [46-49] illustrated an example of noncovalent wrapping by tt-tt interaction between CNTs and poly(m-phenylenevinylene-co-2,5-dioctoxy-p-phenylene vinylene) (PmPV), a conjugated luminescent polymer, to obtain a CNT-PmPV composite. 

Table 13-1. Chemical structures of representative luminescent conjugated polymers.

Brandys, M.-C. and Puddephatt, R.J. (2001) Strongly luminescent three-coordinate gold(l) polymers ID chain-link fence and 2D chickenwire structures. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 123, 4839 840. 

Shieh, S.-J., Hong, X., Peng, S.-M. and Che, C.-M. (1994) Synthesis and crystal structure of a luminescent onedimensional phenylacetylide-gold(I) polymer with 2,6-bis(diphenylphosphino) pyridine as ligand. Journal of the Chemical Society, Dalton Transactions, 3067-3068. 

Optical fibres composed of plastics are also transparent in the visible spectral region but optical losses reach 102 - 103 dB/km13. Their refractive index varies from 1.35 to 1.6 depending on the kind of polymer used (e.g. polymethymethacrylate PMMA -1.49). The chemical resistance is much worse than that of silica fibres and thermal stability is incomparable. On the other hand, low temperature processes of plastic fibre preparation allow us mix the starting polymer with organic dyes which enables the production of luminescent fibres suitable e.g. for fluorescence-based sensing13. 

Sensors are usually attached chemically or physically to other materials here referred as the carrier, like polymers, antibodies, and optical fibers in order to facilitate the sensing process. These carriers generally affect the luminescent characteristics of the sensor molecules. The modification of the luminescent characteristics of the sensor is caused by the creation of more than one microphase or microenvironment for the sensor. Each molecule in its particular microenvironment may return to the ground state following a different set of processes or mechanisms. Alternatively, the nonra-diative decay rate of each microphase may be different for each sensor molecule. Depending on the characteristics of the carrier and the sensor, the number of microphases may be one, two, three, or an infinite number. 

Lu X, Manners I, Winnik MA (2001) Oxygen diffusion in polymer films for luminescence barometry applications. In Valeur B, Brochon J-C (eds) New trends in fluorescence spectroscopy Applications to chemical and life sciences. Springer series on fluorescence methods and applications, vol 1. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, p 229-256... 

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