Fluorene, triplet state energy

We now consider hydrogen transfer reactions between the excited impurity molecules and the neighboring host molecules in crystals. Prass et al. [1988, 1989] and Steidl et al. [1988] studied the abstraction of an hydrogen atom from fluorene by an impurity acridine molecule in its lowest triplet state. The fluorene molecule is oriented in a favorable position for the transfer (Figure 6.18). The radical pair thus formed is deactivated by the reverse transition. H atom abstraction by acridine molecules competes with the radiative deactivation (phosphorescence) of the 3T state, and the temperature dependence of transfer rate constant is inferred from the kinetic measurements in the range 33-143 K. Below 72 K, k(T) is described by Eq. (2.30) with n = 1, while at T>70K the Arrhenius law holds with the apparent activation energy of 0.33 kcal/mol (120 cm-1). The value of a corresponds to the thermal excitation of the symmetric vibration that is observed in the Raman spectrum of the host crystal. The shift in its frequency after deuteration shows that this is a libration i.e., the tunneling is enhanced by hindered molecular rotation in crystal. 

These approaches have been adopted more recently to incorporate phosphorescent chromophores into PF in order to make use of the fact that a large proportion (up to 75%) of all excitons formed in LEDs are triplet states, whose energy can only be harvested by using phosphorescent units. The first fluorene copolymers with phosphorescent units 34-35 were made by Holmes and coworkers who added monobrominated red- or green-emitting iridium complexes to an AA-BB Suzuki polycondensation [57]. With short fluorene chains, only emission from the iridium complexes are observed, but with longer fluorene chains some blue emission is also seen. Other groups have since incorporated different phosphorescent units such as platinum [58] or zinc salen [59] units or porphyrins [60,61 ]. 

Detailed studies have been performed on the photophysics of a range of Pt poly-ynes [68, 75-77], and the energy-gap law for triplet states in a series of platinum poly-ynes has been established [78]. Convincing evidence for Jt-conjugation between metal sites in the main chain has been provided by some of the experiments [75]. The photophysics of polymers with fluorene and carbazole spacers has also been investigated in depth, and the studies indicate that the singlet state extends over more than one repeat unit whereas the triplet state is strongly localized [79]. 

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