Dipolar stabilization of emissive singlet charge transfer excited states in polyfluorene copolymers

The singlet excited-state dynamics in poly[(9,9-dioctylfluorene)-(dibenzothiophene-S,S-dioxide)] (PFSx) random copolymers with different contents of dibenzothiophene-S,S-dioxide (S) units have been studied by steady-state and time resolved fluorescence spectroscopies. Emission from PFSx copolymers shows a pronounced solvatochromism in polar chloroform, relative to the less polar toluene. An excited intramolecular charge transfer state (ICT) is stabilized by dipole-dipole interactions with the polar solvent cage, and possibly accompanied by conformational rearrangement of the molecular structure, in complete analogy with their small oligomer counterparts. The spectral dynamics clearly show that the ICT stabilization is strongly affected by the surrounding, medium. In the solid state, emission from PFS, copolymers depends on the content of S units, showing an increase of inhomogeneous broadening and a red shift of the optical transitions. This observation is consistent with stabilization of the emissive ICT state, by the local reorientation of the surrounding molecules at the location of the excited chromophore, which results in favorable dipole-dipole interactions driven by the increase in the dielectric constant of the bulk polymer matrix with increasing S content, in analogy to what happens in polar solvent studies. Furthermore, in clear agreement with the interpretation described above, a strong increase in the emission quantum efficiency is observed in the solid state by decreasing the temperature and freezing out the molecular torsions and dipole-dipole interactions necessary to stabilize the ICT state.