Electropolymerization of Macromers Containing Ruthenium(II) Polypridyl Complexes

Poly[4-(2-aminoethyl)styrene], prepared by living anionic polymerization having n ≈ 18 repeat units and a molecular weight distribution of M̄w/M̄n = 1.10, has been derivatized by amide coupling to [RuII(vbpy)2(bpy-COOH)]2+ (vbpy is 4-vinyl-4‘-methyl-2,2‘-bipyridine; bpy-COOH is 4-methyl-2,2‘-bipyridine-4‘-carboxylic acid). A molecular model of the product, [PS-CH2CH2NHCO-(RuII18)]36+, is shown at the left. Reductive electropolymerization based on the vinyl groups gives films having open, porous structures which retain the electron-transfer and excited-state properties of the constituent complexes but modified by the film environment.