Stable and color tunable MEH-PPV/PMMA polymer blends for light-emitting applications

Highlights: • In-situ polymerization resulted in segmentation of MEH-PPV causing to blue-shift. • PL intensity and film morphology were altered by varying the MEH-PPV: MMA ratio. • Emission color was modified by fine-tuning the initial concentration MEH-PPV solution. • Polymer blend with improved stability was obtained. Light Emitting Polymers (LEPs) have gained attention in optoelectronics. However, stability and regulation of emission color remain a challenge. This study aims to overcome the challenge by formulating a Polymer Blend (PB) which consists of a LEP – poly [2-methoxy,5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)1,4-phynylenevinylene (MEH-PPV) and a non-conjugated polymer – poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). A simple approach of in situ polymerization of the non-conjugated polymer in the MEH-PPV solution leads to alteration of size of the MEH-PPV polymer chain and modified the emission color from red-orange to bluish-green. The barrier properties of PMMA improve the stability of PB in an ambient environment with unnoticeable luminescence loss. This type of PB shall find application in Organic Light-Emitting Devices.