Disclosed herein is a graft block copolymer comprising a first block polymer; the first block polymer comprising a backbone polymer and a first graft polymer; where the first graft polymer comprises a surface energy reducing moiety that comprises a halocarbon moiety, a silicon containing moiety, or a combination of a halocarbon moiety and a silicon containing moiety; a second block polymer; the second block polymer being covalently bonded to the first block; wherein the second block comprises the backbone polymer and a second graft polymer; where the second graft polymer comprises a functional group that is operative to undergo acid-catalyzed deprotection causing a change of solubility of the graft block copolymer in a developer solvent.

The disclosed technology relates generally to apparatus comprising conductive polymers and more particularly to tag and tag devices comprising a redox-active polymer film, and method of using and manufacturing the same. In one aspect, an apparatus includes a substrate and a conductive structure formed on the substrate which includes a layer of redox-active polymer film having mobile ions and electrons. The conductive structure further includes a first terminal and a second terminal configured to receive an electrical signal therebetween, where the layer of redox-active polymer is configured to conduct an electrical current generated by the mobile ions and the electrons in response to the electrical signal. The apparatus additionally includes a detection circuit operatively coupled to the conductive structure and configured to detect the electrical current flowing through the conductive structure.

The present invention provides soluble, stable singlet fission (SF) compounds, compositions, materials, methods of their use, and methods for their preparation that provide efficient intramolecular singlet fission (iSF) and multiple excitons. The SF compound may be a dimer, an oligomer, or a polymer of polyoligoacenes, where for example, the compound achieves a triplet yield reaching about 200% per absorbed photon. In this system, SF does not depend on intermolecular inter-actions. Instead, SF is an intrinsic property of the molecule and therefore occurs independent of intermolecular interactions. Singlet fission has the potential to significantly improve the photocurrent in single junction solar cells and thus raise the Shockley-Queisser power conversion efficiency limit from about 33% to about 46% or greater. Quantitative SF yield at room temperature has only been observed in crystalline solids or aggregates of higher acenes.

The present invention provides a material for forming an underlayer film for lithography, containing at least any of a compound represented by following formula (1) or a resin including a structural unit derived from a compound represented by the following formula (1),

##STR00001##

wherein R.sup.1 represents a 2n-valent group having a 1 to 60 carbon atoms, or a single bond, each R.sup.2 independently represents a halogen atom, a straight, branched or cyclic alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6 to 10 carbon atoms, an alkenyl group having 2 to 10 carbon atoms, an alkoxy group having 1 to 30 carbon atoms, a thiol group, or a hydroxyl group, and may be the same or different in the same naphthalene ring or benzene ring, n is an integer of 1 to 4, structural formulae of n's structural units in square brackets [ ] may be the same or different when n is an integer of 2 or more, X represents an oxygen atom, a sulfur atom, or an uncrosslinked state, each m2 is independently an integer of 0 to 7, in which at least one m.sup.2 is an integer of 1 to 7, and each q is independently 0 or 1, provided that at least one selected from the group consisting of R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 is a group having an iodine atom.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide for conjugated polymer nanoparticle, method of making conjugated polymer nanoparticles, method of using conjugated polymer nanoparticle, polymers, and the like.

A method of forming a crosslinked polymer and an anion, the method comprising the step of reacting a first polymeric substituent comprising a nucleophilic group and a second polymeric substituent comprising an electrophilic group wherein the first polymeric substituent is a substituent of a first polymer and the second polymeric substituent is a substituent of the first polymer or a second polymer. The first and second polymers may be non-conjugated or conjugated. The crosslinked polymers may be used in electrochemical devices, for example battery cells.

Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provides for the photoalignment layer for liquid crystal displays, a liquid crystal display device using the photoalignment layer and a manufacturing method. The photoalignment layer encompasses polynorbornene (PNB) polymers among other additives. More specifically, embodiments of this invention include a method for the fabrication of a liquid crystal display and the photoalignment layer encompassing the PNB polymers.

The present invention relates to a process for producing a liquid composition comprising a functionalized ?-conjugated polythiophenes, comprising the process steps of i) providing a liquid phase comprising a) thiophene monomers of the general formula (I) wherein X,Y are identical or different and are O, S, or NR.sup.1, wherein R.sup.1 is hydrogen or an aliphatic or aromatic residue having 1 to 18 carbon atoms; A is organic residue carrying an anionic functional group; b) an oxidizing agent; and c) a solvent; ii) oxidatively polymerizing the thiophene monomers of the general formula (I) to obtain a liquid composition comprising functionalized ?-conjugated polythiophenes; wherein (?1) the pH of the liquid phase provided in process step i) is adjusted to a value below 7.0, wherein the pH is determined at a temperature of 20? C.; and (?2) the chloride content of the liquid phase provided in process step i) is less than 10000 ppm, based on the total weight of the liquid phase. The present invention also relates to the liquid composition obtainable by this process, to a liquid composition comprising a functionalized ?-conjugated polythiophene, wherein the composition is characterized by a certain ratio of mass average molecular weight M.sub.w and the molar average molecular weight M.sub.n of the functionalized ?-conjugated polythiophene, to a liquid composition comprising a functionalized ?-conjugated polythiophene, wherein the functionalized ?-conjugated polythiophene comprises different repeating units in a defined amount, to a process for the preparation of such a liquid composition, to a process for the preparation of a capacitor in which these liquid compositions are used for the formation of the solid electrolyte, to a capacitor obtainable by this process and to the use of the liquid compositions for the preparation of a conductive layer.

The present invention relates to functionalized polymers including a poly(phenylene) structure having modifications suitable for an anion exchange membrane. Exemplary modifications include use of a cationic moiety and a halo moiety. Methods and uses of such structures and polymers are also described herein.

A polymer containing a repeating unit expressed by General Formula (I): ##STR00001## where Ar.sup.1 represents a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic hydrocarbon group; Ar.sup.2 and Ar.sup.3 independently represent a divalent group of a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic hydrocarbon group; and R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, or substituted or unsubstituted aromatic hydrocarbon group.