Luminescent hybrid materials for LED lighting

This thesis aimed at designing and synthesizing organic-inorganic hybrid materials with controlled luminescence and at investigating them as phosphors for LED lighting. The final goal was to obtain a white source of light. Indeed, commercial white LEDs are made up of a blue emitting device covered with a yellow phosphor. Combining these two colors yields white light. However, this light is not of good quality as it lacks some red component. This results in a bad rendering of the colors of objects illuminated by these sources of light. In our work, conjugated polymers with different emission colors have successfully been obtained. In particular, several single white emitters have been isolated.In this PhD thesis, not only the synthetic procedures and chemical characterizations are presented in detail, but also the studies of the photophysical properties of the polymers, either in solution or in the solid state. Solid state studies were performed on the bulk polymers and on the polymers dispersed into a polymeric matrix. These studies have lead to identify the limiting factors that could hamper the use of the materials. Solutions have been proposed to improve the materials performance and stability. Furthermore, 2,2’-bipyrimidine has been introduced as a new synthon for designing and developing conjugated polymers.