| Conjugated polymers combining the optical and electronic properties of semiconductors with advantages of organic materials are being explored as active components in various types of thin-film electronic and optoelectronic devices. The realization of conjugated polymer based electronics and optoelectronics critically depends on developing novel approaches for assembling this new class of materials into a controlled fashion. We have developed new non-photolithographic methods for the spatial deposition of conjugated polymers. As a proof-of-concept of these methods, the well-known luminescent polymer, poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV), has been used as a model structure in our work. One strategy is based on the modification of solid substrates with microcontact-printed self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) that serve as templates for the deposition of PPVs from solution. Conjugated polymer patterns have also been generated by directly stamping of PPVs onto the reactive SAMs-coated substrates. In both methods, PPVs were covalently immobilized onto the supporting surface through the formation of amide bonds, thus rendering great stability of the resulting patterns. Well-defined PPV micropatterns have been fully characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and fluorescence optical microscopy. The interaction between PPVs and the underlying surface was analyzed by grazing-angle reflectance Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).; Many applications based on conjugated polymers require the controlled assembly of the polymers as multilayer structures, in which molecules with different functionality can be incorporated into individual layers with precisely controlled thickness. We have developed a series of layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly approaches to multilayer conjugated polymer thin films. Hydrogen-bonding interaction and covalent coupling reaction have been utilized, respectively, to produce conjugated polymer multilayer films with molecular-level controlled thickness and architecture. The ability to fabricate multilayer thin films in organic solvents broadens the range of the LbL technique and provides a general route for preparing a wide range of electroactive molecular assemblies. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
