The recent invention of conducting polymer Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) expends the possible applications for conducting polymers into the area of active light sources, with possible significant advantages over existing gallium arsenide LED technology. In order to exploit this alternative, some remaining technical barriers must be addressed. Among these are the need for materials with higher quantum efficiency, in order to boost device visibility in bright sunlight. UNIAX proposes to synthesize copolymers whose structure mimics that of a partially conjuugated (but thermally unstable) precursor to the conducting polymer poly(p-phenylene vinylene). The precursor has been shown to have a quantum efficiency about 20 times that of the daughter fully conjugated polymer.
