A new diiodo monomer containing heterocyclic pyridine and carbazole groups was synthesized via Chichibabin reaction and used in the preparation of a conjugated polymer via Suzuki coupling approach. The conjugated polymer was highly soluble in common organic solvents such as NMP, THF, dichloromethane, chloroform, toluene, xylene, and benzene at room temperature. The polymer had high glass transition temperature at 191 degrees C and T-d1o at 434 degrees C in nitrogen atmosphere. The pristine polymer exhibited the UV-vis maximum absorption at 355 nm and shifted to 420 nm after protonation. The emission of the polymer in THF solution changed from the blue region with maximum peak at 400 nm to the yellow region with maximum peak at 540 nm after protonated by HCl, and the intensity of emission depended on the concentration of acid. The polymer also showed electrochromic behavior under applied voltage. The emission color of the polymer film changed from blue (435 mm) to yellow (570 nm) when 2.5 V bias voltage was applied. The polymer also exhibited write-once and read-many-times (WORM) polymer memory effect with tristable states. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 991-1002, 2009