Novel polymers containing discrete conjugated units, produced by the Heck reaction

Novel monomers and polymers containing arylenevinylideneethynylene groups were synthesized via the Heck reaction. The polymers were amorphous and soluble in common organic solvents. They showed T-g around 60 degrees C and 5% weight loss in the region of 240-340 degrees C and underwent thermal cross-linking on heating to 170-190 degrees C at the expense of triple bonds. One of the polymers showed strong blue luminescence with emission maxima around 380-390 and 470-480nm with excitation at 320 nm. All polymers showed nonlinear optical susceptibility of the third order (chi((3))) around 10(-10) esu.