Liquid crystalline polyacetylenes with tunable luminescent properties

Development of advanced polymeric materials with both liquid crystallinity and light emissivity is of scientific interest and technological importance. In this study, we studied light emission from tetrahydrofuran solutions of a liquid crystalline polyacetylene, poly(11-{[(4'-heptoxy-4- biphenylyl)carbonyl]oxy}-1-undecyne), in the electrical field. The field exerts little effect on the photoluminescence of the polymer solution with a low concentration (0.10 mM). The photoluminescence of a concentrated solution (11.3 mM) is, however, noticeably quenched under an electrical field with a field strength of > 300 kV/m. When the field strength is increased to >= 367 kV/m, the bimodal emission spectrum of the solution changes to a monomodal one. Thus, both the emission intensity and spectral profile of the luminescence of the concentrated solution can be tuned by the electrical field, which is probably caused by the aggregate dissociation and mesogen realignment induced by the external stimulus.