Conjugated polymers from naphthalene bisimide.

Stille coupling of regioisomerically pure dibromonaphthalene bisimides (NBI) with various stannylated thiophene-based monomers yields (very) high molecular weight donor-acceptor conjugated polymers. Electrochemical and optical absorption measurements reveal that LUMO energies are essentially invariant and dictated by the NBI units, while HOMO energies are dictated by the thienyl comonomers. Optical energy gaps ranging from 1.7 to 1.1 eV are thus obtained. The polymers are also characterized by differential scanning calorimetry and fiber WAXD.