The present investigation deals with the synthesis, characterization, and EL properties of new polyfluorenevinylenes, CzCNPFVs, with cyano-substituted vinylene unit and carbazole pendant. In CzCNPFVs, synthesized by the Knoevenagel condensation, the carbazole pendant was introduced to improve the efficiency of reported CNPFV The PL emission spectra of the CzCNPFVs in chloroform solution show maximum peaks at 476-479 nm. In thin films, maximum peaks of the CzCNPFVs appeared at 501-504 nm, red-shifted around 25 nm as compared to those in solution. The emission maxima of the EL spectra of the polymers appear at around 496-504 nm. The maximum luminescence (L-max) of CzCNPFV2 of the device with the configuration of ITO/PEDOT/CzCNPFVs/Ca/Al is 1724 cd/m(2) at 8 V The maximum luminescence efficiency of CzCNPFV1 is 0.18 ed/A. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 6540-6551, 2009