Stable blue emission from a polyfluorene/layered-compound guest/host nanocomposite

In this study a blue-light-emitting conjugated polymer, poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene), is confined to the interlayer space of inorganic, layered metal dichalcogenide materials, metallic MoS₂, and semiconducting SnS₂. The nanocomposites are prepared through Li intercalation into the inorganic compound, exfoliation, and restacking in the presence of the polymer. X-ray diffraction and optical absorption measurements indicate that a single conjugated polymer monolayer, with an overall extended planar morphology conformation, is isolated between the inorganic sheets, so that polymer aggregation or π-π interchain interactions are significantly reduced. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements show that the appearance of the undesirable green emission observed in pristine polymer films is suppressed by incorporating the polymer into the inorganic matrix. The blue emission of the intercalated polymer is stable for extended periods of time, over two years, under ambient conditions. Furthermore, the green emission is absent in the PL spectra of nanocomposite films heated at 100 °C for 7 h in air with direct excitation of the keto defect. Finally, no green emission was observed in the electroluminescence spectrum of light-emitting devices fabricated with a polymer-intercalated SnS₂ nanocomposite film. These results support the proposed hypothesis that fluorenone defects alone are insufficient to generate the green emission and that interchain interactions are also required.