Title: polyphenylenethynylenes
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - polyphenylenethynylenes
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.08896
Status: current

Definition
Polymer composed of macromolecules containing exclusively alternating phenylene or substituted phenylene and ethynediyl (formerly ethynylene) constitutional repeating units in the backbone:  where \(\ce{R^{1}}\), \(\ce{R^{2}}\), \(\ce{R^{3}}\) and \(\ce{R^{4}}\) are each hydrogen, alkyl, aryl, halogen, trialkylsilyl etc. (structure-based polymer class name).

Note
Polyphenylenethynylenes are a subclass of polyarylenethynylenes and also a subclass of conjugated polymers (except for those containing 1,3-phenylene constitutional repeating units).

Example
 

Related Terms
- conjugated polymers: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08785
- polyarylenethynylenes: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08885

Source
- PAC, 2022, 94, 15. 'Glossary of terms relating to electronic, photonic and magnetic properties of polymers (IUPAC Recommendations 2021)' on page 59 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2020-0501)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08896/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08896/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08896/xml

Citation: Citation: 'polyphenylenethynylenes' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.08896
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Accessed: 2026-04-18T08:32:16+00:00