Perylene Diimide Incorporated Polyurethane Polymer as Potential Colour Filter Material with Non-fluorescent Property^†

A novel polyurethane polymer containing perylene diimide (PDI) unit and aniline segment, denoted as PU-PDI, was designed and synthesized. Their tensile property and photophysical characteristic were investigated using various experimental and theoretical techniques. It is found that the elongation of PU-PDIs can reach more than 1000%, indicating good tensile performance. Moreover, based on the photoinduced electron transfer mechanism, the aniline segments in polyurethane can quench the auto-fluorescence of PDI unit to a negligible value, which overcomes the intractable fluorescence drawbacks of conventional colour filters. The non-emissive characteristic, in combination with the good thermal stability and tensile property of PU-PDI, provides a feasible design strategy to fabricate optical filters with high display quality.