Synthesis and luminescent properties of novel bisfunctional polymeric complexes based on carbazole and 8-hydroxyquinoline groups

Graphical abstract: Synthesis route: the ligand B8QPC was synthesized using 8-hydroxyquinoline derivative and N-butyl-3,6-diformylcarbazole through the Wittig condensation polymerization. The corresponding polymeric metal complexes were: B8QPC with Cu(II), Zn(II). -- Abstract: A fully conjugated ligand 3,6-bis (8-hydroxyquinoline-5-propenyl)-N-butyl-carbazole (B8QPC) containing hole- and electron-transporting groups was firstly synthesized through the Wittig condensation polymerization. Corresponding polymeric complexes, B8QPC (1) with Cu(II) (2) and Zn(II) (3), were synthesized and characterized by FT-IR, elemental Analysis, conductivity measurement and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). GPC indicated that the number average molecular weights (Mn) are about 3800 and the degree of polymerization (n) are about 5 for the polymeric complexes 2 and 3. UV-vis and fluorescence spectra at room temperature revealed that both the polymeric complexes 2 and 3 emit blue luminescence at 473 and 513 nm (λem,max) in DMSO solution and blue/green luminescence at 522 and 531 nm (λem,max) in solid state, respectively. Thermal property measurements show that they have good thermal stability