The present invention discloses methods to remove impurities in polymeric materials
in order to improve the opto-electronic characteristics of devices fabricated from
these polymers. The polymers include but not limited to polyarylenes, polyarylenevinylenes,
polyaryleneethylnylene, polyfluorenes, polyanilines, polythiophenes, polypyrroles,
and any conjugated co-polymers. The methods involve the selection of a scavenger
or chelating agent and use it to remove metallic impurities from the polymers.
The methods involve dissolving the polymer in a suitable solvent, adding a scavenger,
mixing to form a scavenger, containing phase, and finally separating the scavenger
containing phase from the polymer phase. According to this invention, it is preferable
for the selected scavengers to have functional groups which can chemically react
with metallic species and form a coordination compound that is not soluble in a
selected solvent. The selected scavenger can be used in a free stand form or carried
by either organic or inorganic media.
