The synthesis and characterization of a series of semiconducting polymers of the polyphenylenevinylene (PPV) type is presented. These new polymers have every second phenylene ring substituted by two alkyl groups of equal length which are hexyl, heptyl, octyl, nonyl, decyl, undecyl, and dodecyl. The polymers were synthesized from the corresponding dialkyldialdehydes by a Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons condensation reaction with 1, 4-bis ( ...