Poly[(maleic anhydride)-alt-(vinyl acetate)] : a pure oxygenic nonconjugated macromolecule with strong light emission and solvatochromic effect

Organic luminescent materials carrying no phenyl rings have attracted much interest from researchers due to their excellent biocompatibility and good biodegradability, which make them available for potential applications in a variety of biomedical areas, such as fluorescent bioprobe, drug delivery and gene carrier, and provide a new insight into the photophysical process of light emission. In this work, we studied the optical properties of poly[(maleic anhydride)-alt-(vinyl acetate)] (PMV), a pure oxygenic nonconjugated polymer and proved that the origin of its emission was associated with the clustering of the locked carbonyl groups. PMV exhibits solvatochromism: after interaction with electron-rich solvents, its absorption and emission shift to the longer wavelength region due to the formation of polymer/solvent complexes. This enables fine-tuning of its optical property by varying the solvent without the need of changing the chromophore.