Polaron and bipolaron formation in model oligomeric extended π-electron systems: studies towards the rational design of electroactive polymers for non-linear optics applications

Abstract Oligomers related to poly( p -phenylene vinylene) and poly(2,5-thienylene vinylene) can be oxidatively doped with SbCl 5 in CH 2 Cl 2 solution, and successive polaron and bipolaron formation can be followed by absorption spectroscopy. Electron-donating groups, such as CH 3 O, stabilize bipolaron states for several hours at room temperature in contact with moist air, which indicates that highly delocalized oligomeric systems may be useful for modelling approaches to enhancing non-linear optical properties in electroactive polymers in which the size of the delocalized domain plays an important role.