Novel Synthesis and Characterization of Side-Chain Ferrocene-Containing Polymers

A convenient and economic one-step synthesis of 2-ferrocenylethyl alcohol was developed, which led to the high yield monomer synthesis of 2-ferrocenylethyl acrylate, 2-ferrocenylethyl methacrylate, 2-ferrocenylethylacrylamide, and 2-ferrocenylethylmethacrylamide. Using AIBN as initiator, the homopolymerization or copolymerization of these monomers with N- isopropylacrylamide in toluene or THF under various conditions resulted in high molar mass homopolymers or thermally sensitive copolymers. They were characterized by 1 H NMR and IR spectroscopies as well as by a combination of static and dynamic laser light scattering. Our results showed that for poly(2-ferrocenylethyl acrylate) and poly(2-ferrocenylethyl methacrylate) homopolymers the z -average translational diffusion coefficient 〈 D 〉 can be scaled to the weight-average molar mass ( M w ) as 〈 D 〉 = 1.3 × 10 5 M w -0.57 and 〈 D 〉 = 1.9 × 10 -5 M w -0.52, respectively, indicating that these polymer chains are flexible and have a coil conformation in toluene. The collapse and swelling of poly[( N -2-ferrocenylethylacrylamide)- co -( N -isopropylacrylamide)] copolymers in water led to a convenient way to alternate the average interdistance between ferrocene groups.