This contribution demonstrates the synthesis of a series of Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles (CPNs) in water at high solids loading by miniemulsion polymerisation. Using this method, CPNs in the range 40-120 nm were obtained with a narrow particle size distribution determined by dynamic light-scattering (DLS).1 Polyfluorene-based CPNs with blue, green and red emission were synthesised using Suzuki coupling.2 The emission colour was varied by the incorporation of an acceptor unit in the polymer backbone.3 These polyfluorene-based nanoparticles exhibited interesting optical properties with photoluminescence quantum yields (QY) of up to 56% for green particles. The miniemulsión process has been also used to prepare CPNs of interest in the fabrication of Organic Photovoltaic devices such as poly(3 hexylthiophene) (P3HT) nanoparticles. With this method it is possible to synthesise CPNs dispersions with concentrations of polymer up to 11,000 ppm in water, concentration amendable to direct solution process of thin films.
References (1) Szymanski, C.; Wu, C.; Hooper, J.; Salazar, M. A.; Perdomo, A.; Dukes, A.; McNeill, J. J. Phys. Chem. B 2005, 109, 8543. (2) Behrendt, J. M.; Wang, Y.; Willcock, H.; Wall, L.; McCairn, M. C.; O'Reilly, R. K.; Turner, M. L. Polym. Chem. 2013, 4, 1333. (3) Muenmart, D.; Foster, A. B.; Harvey, A.; Chen, M.-T.; Navarro, O.; Promarak, V.; McCairn, M. C.; Behrendt, J. M.; Turner, M. L. Macromolecules (Washington, DC, U. S.) 2014, 47, 6531.