Oxidative doping studies of PPV oligomers

Abstract Oligomers of the electroactive polymer poly( p -phenylene vinylene (PPV) were oxidatively doped in dilute CH 2 Cl 2 solution with SbCl 5 . In the dimer and trimer cases, stable charged species are formed which have characteristics similar to bipolarons formed during the oxidative doping of PPV, with ω o / Δ splittings deep in the gap very similar to those found in PPV. Similar splittings are found in the tetramer, but the lack of oligomer solubility hindered detailed measurements. The bipolaron-like intermediates formed by chemical oxidation exhibit weak confinement qualitatively similar to the PPV bipolarons formed electrochemically or by photoinduced absorptions.