Abstract
In view of the recent importance of photoresponsive polymers such as photoresist, photochromic polymer, photoconductive polymer, polymeric photosensitizer and many others, an attempt of molecular designing was described. The principle is based on the assumption that any specific molecular function stems from molecular interactions so that the first step should be to understand the polymer structure-molecular interactions in the ground and excited state-unctionality correlation. Specificity of polymer systems in excimer and exciplex formation, and energy migration was studied in relation to the polymer structure, the degree of polymerization, and the environment effects with the aid of over 30 new polymers and their model compounds. The information was then applied to design photopolymers containing anthracene unit which behaved as either photocrosslinkable or photochromic polymers. Photoconductive polymers containing trans-1, 2-bis (9-carbazolyl) cyclobutane units were also designed and synthesized. The excellent performance was demonstrated. Fluorescence spectroscopy showed that the polymers satisfied the conditions to be good photoconductors.
