Polyfluorenes are an important class of electroactive and photoactive materials. In the last three years this research field has literally exploded because of polyfluorenes' exceptional electrooptical properties for applications in light‐emitting diodes. This is the only family of conjugated polymers that emit colors spanning the entire visible range with high efficiency and low operating voltage. Other unusual optical and electrical properties are made possible with polyfluorene derivatives, such as thermochromism and conducting base‐doped polyelectrolytes. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 39: 2867–2873, 2001