Patent ID: 6916928

Claim:
A method of forming a polymer comprising: adding a perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid diimide compound of formula (I) to a polymerization reaction: wherein, each R 1 is independently an alkyl or aryl group, which may be unbranched or branched, unsubstituted or substituted, and may optionally contain at least one substituent functional group Y, each R 2 is independently H, C 1 -C 4 -alkyl, C 1 -C 4 -alkoxy, C 5 -C 15 -aryl, C 5 -C 15 -aryloxy or a radical which contains at least one substituent functional group Y, wherein Y is selected from the group consisting of hydroxyl, ether, ester, halogen when said radical is not an aryloxy radical, amine, amide, thiol, an ethylenically unsaturated double bond, an acetylenically unsaturated triple bond and carboxyl, which may optionally have a protecting group or an activating group, and said radical is selected from the group consisting of C 1 -C 30 alkyl radicals, C 1 -C 30 alkoxy radicals, C 1 -C 30 alkylthio radicals, C 5 -C 30 aryl radicals, C 5 -C 30 aryloxy radicals, C 5 -C 30 arylthio radicals, C 1 -C 30 hydrocarbon radicals, silyl radicals and mixtures thereof, wherein at least one R 2 contains said functional group Y that enables covalent bonding of said perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid diimide compound of formula (I) into polymers formed during said polymerization reaction.