Synthesis of poly(paraphenylene vinylene)—polystyrene‐based rod‐coil block copolymer by atom transfer radical polymerization: Toward a self‐organized lamellar semiconducting material

Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) was used as a versatile route to well‐defined poly(diethylhexyl‐p‐phenylenevinylene‐b‐styrene) (PPV‐b‐PS) semiconducting block copolymers. For this purpose, original conjugated macroinitiators were synthesized from DEH‐PPV and further used for the copolymerization reaction. The microphase‐separated morphologies obtained with the semiconducting PPV‐b‐PS block copolymer fulfill the basic structural requirements required to build efficient organic photovoltaic devices. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008