We have been investigating the possibility that poly(arylene ether phosphine oxide)s can serve as novel hosts for non-lineary opticaI(NLO) chromophores. The objective was to demonstrate that high temperature host polymers could be prepared, which were transparent, solvent-castable, and which had an affinity for some of the polar groups in the desired chromofores. This has been demonstrated utilizing phenolphthalein based poly arylene ether phosphine oxides. Essentially, the nitro group on a typical NLO chromophore was proposed to associate with the phosphine oxide bond and to some extent the carbonyl groups in the phenolphthalein component of the repeat unit. We have now demonstrated a novel route to producing ionomeric derivatives, which involve interacting a phosphonium salt with a chromophore bearing sodium sulfonate structure, such as methyl orange. the resulting materials produce bright red transparent films that are being evaluated.
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