High yield and stereospecific synthesis of segmented poly (p-phenylene vinylene) by the Heck reaction

• We synthesized a segmented poly phenylenevinylene system by the Heck reaction with high yield and improved molecular weight.
• We use two different sources of palladium in order to study its effect in the molecular weight of the polymer.
• We demonstrated the confinement of the chromophoric group by comparison of UV–vis and PL spectra of the polymer with its oligomer.
• We found a quantum yield high for the oligomer in comparison with other previous reports.

A new block copolymer comprised of a 2,5 (p-phenylene vinylene) unit alternating with a hexamethylene unit was synthetized by the Heck methodology using phosphite ligands and two different sources of palladium, with high yields and good polymerization degrees. The spectral characteristics of the polymer are in good agreement with those of its oligomer analogue and its quantum yield (as high as 0.78 vs quinine sulfate as standard) showed to be dependant on the source of palladium employed for the Heck reaction.