Photoconductivity and charge transporting properties of metal-containing poly(p-phenylenevinylene)s

A novel type of poly(p-phenylenevinylene)s which contain bis(2,2':6',2 ''-terpyridine) ruthenium (II) complexes has been developed. The absorption of the polymers at 500 nm was strongly enhanced by the metal complexes due to the presence of the metal-ligand charge transfer transition. The charge transportation is dispersive with hole carrier mobilities and activation energy of similar to 7 x 10(-5) cm(2) V-1 s(-1) and 0.20 eV, respectively, depending on the concentration of the metal complex. A log mu vs E-1/2 plot shows that hole mobilities decrease with increasing field, which suggests the presence of off-diagonal disorder in the hopping sites. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.