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Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
Published on: September 26, 2016
Formation of a defect-free π-electron system in single β-phase polyfluorene chains
Enrico Da Como1, Nicholas J Borys, Peter Strohriegl
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, United States. enrico.dacomo@physik.uni-muenchen.de
Abstract:
Single-molecule spectroscopy can help to uncover the underlying heterogeneity of conjugated polymers used in organic electronics, revealing the most effective molecules in an ensemble in terms of the transport of charge and excitation energy. We demonstrate that β-phase polyfluorene chains can form a near-perfect π-electron system, whereas conventional polymers exhibit chromophoric localization due to perturbation of the conjugation. Broad-band excitation spectroscopy demonstrates that only one absorbing and emitting unit is present on the polymer chain with an average length of ∼500 repeat units, illustrating that the material effectively behaves as a molecular quantum wire with strong electronic coupling throughout the entire system.
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