Synthesis and optical properties of soluble low bandgap poly (pyrrole methine) with alkoxyl substituent

Abstract

A soluble low bandgap poly (pyrrole methine) with alkoxyl substituent, poly {(3-hexanoyl)pyrrole-[2,5-diyl(p-tetradecyloxybenzylidene)]} (PHPDTBE), was synthesized and characterized by ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-NMR), Fourier transform- in frared (FT-IR), elemental analysis (EA) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). PHPDTBE was readily soluble in weak polar organic solvents. The absorption peaks of PHPDTBE solution and film were located at around 458 and 484 nm, respectively. The optical bandgaps of PHPDTBE film for indirect allowed and direct allowed transitions were measured to be 1.66 and 2.35 eV, respectively. PHPDTBE film had few defects in the energy band and the Urbach energy of PHPDTBE film was calculated to be about 0.19 eV. The resonant third-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities of PHPDTBE solution and film measured by degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) technique at 532 nm were all in the order of 10^-8 esu, which was about 1~3 orders of magnitude larger than that of the other ordinary π-conjugation polymers.

Keywords

poly (pyrrole methine) / low bandgap / Urbach energy / third-order nonlinear optical property

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61205182).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg