Synthesis and Self-Assembly of Coil-Rod-Coil Amphiphilic Triblock Copolymers Constituted of a π-Conjugated Sequence

摘要

π-Conjugated oligomers are widely studied for use in optoelectronic devices because their well-defined chemical structure eases tuning of the electronic properties. Moreover, the incorporation of conjugated sequence into block copolymers improves their processability and also, leads to original morphologies of self-assembled nanosized electroactive materials.We have recently synthesized a series of functionalized well-defined 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene and fluorene-based stiff segments (see Scheme 1) which reveal interesting optical properties. These rigid segments were incorporated within coil-rod-coil triblock copolymer structures with the aim to study their behavior and their tendency to self-organize in water. Different triblock copolymers were achieved by condensative coupling of the rigid segment with PEO or PEO-r-PPO chains and by anionic polymerization of ethylene oxide (Scheme 2). These macromolecular structures were characterized by size exclusion chromatography and ~1H NMR. Their self-assembly in water was studied by light scattering, small-angle neutron scattering, UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopies.