Spectrofluorometric Analysis and Electrical Conductivities of Styrene and Methylmethacrylate Polymers by Adding Symmetrical Polymethine Dyes

To see the effect of conjugation on molecular weight and conductivity, three symmetrical polymethine dyes are added in polymers either before or after polymerization. Dyes have conjugated bonds between nitrogen atoms. Among three dyes, it was observed that as conjugation increases, the conductivity also increases. Previous study with polyethylvinylketone and polymethylvinylketone support the idea that increased conjugation will increase the molecular weight and conductivity. For these polymers also, the dopant, phosphorylchloride increased the conductivities due to the double bond being transferred to the main chain and increased conjugation. The same method developed in this work can be applied to methyl methacrylate and styrene polymers to see the relationship between molecular weight, conductivity, and fluorescence intensity. When dyes were added to methylmethacrylate and styrene monomers before polymerization, much higher conductivities were obtained. Conductivity values are directly proportional to the irradiation times and molecular weights. Four-hour irradiation time results in a maximum molecular weight of 6.4 x 10(5) and a maximum conductivity of 2.25 mu S for MMA polymers. Spectrofluorometric analysis of methyl methacrylate polymers indicates that as molecular weight of the dyes increases, the emission intensities at 375 and 425 nm also increases. In the same way, increased molecular weight of polymer also results higher emission intensities. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 122: 2278-2286, 2011