Liquid‐crystalline and light‐emitting polyacetylenes

Abstract Rigid polymer backbones have often been considered to be detrimental to the packing of mesogenic pendants, and polyacetylenes have generally been regarded as unpromising materials for light‐emitting applications. Our group, however, has succeeded in creating a series of liquid‐crystalline polyacetylenes with rigid backbones and a variety of light‐emitting polyacetylenes with luminescent chromophores. Here we demonstrate that the rigid polyacetylene skeleton can play a constructive role in guiding the alignments of mesogenic pendants and prove that polyacetylenes can be highly emissive with photoluminescence quantum yields of up to 98% and electroluminescence performances comparable or superior to those of the best blue‐light‐emitting polymers. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 2607–2629, 2003