Preparation and optical properties of poly(4-ethynyl-4′-[N,N-diethylamino]azobenzene-co-phenylacetylene)

A novel soluble functional polyacetylene copolymer (poly(EAAB-co-PA)) of 4-ethynyl-4′-[N,N-diethylamino]azobenzene (EAAB) and phenylacetylene (PA) was synthesized. The structures and properties of the polymers were characterized and evaluated by FTIR, UV–vis, 1H NMR, GPC, optical limiting, and nonlinear optical analyses. The results show that poly(EAAB-co-PA) has the large third-order nonlinear susceptibility, which are two orders of magnitude larger than those of poly(PA) and novel optical limiting property.