A series of hyperbranched ladder-type polymers have been prepared through the Pd(0)-catalyzed Suzuki polymerization by "A₂＋B₂＋B₃" approach. All the ladder-type polymers show blue light emission. The UV-vis absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the ladder-type polymers show distinctly blue-shifted according to the increasing of the degrees of branching. Because the hyperbranched structure can suppress interchain aggregationis, smaller red-shifted of the UV-vis absorption and photoluminescence spectra of the ladder-type polymers in film was observed than that in solution. All the hyperbranched ladder-type polymers exhibit excellent thermal stability. The decomposition temperatures of all polymers are above 320 ℃. Neither a glass transition process (T_g) nor other thermal processes is observed from 35 to 300 ℃ in the DSC trace of second heating. Hyperbranched ladder-type conjugated polymers are expected to be good candidation for blue light-emitting materials.

Key words: ladder-type polymers, conjugated polymers, hyperbranched