Preparation of liquid crystalline polymers with monosubstituted ferrocenyl pendant groups and generation of unpaired electrons by complexation with tetracyanoethylene in the solid state

Liquid crystalline (LC) polymers with monosubstituted ferrocenyl units in the side chain were prepared by radical polymerizations of the corresponding LC and non‐LC acrylates. It was demonstrated that polymerization is useful for the LC orientation and expands the LC temperature range. In addition, these mesogenic ferrocenes form a complex with tetracyanoethylene (TCNE) to give spin labeled molecules simply by mixing the ferrocenyl compounds with TCNE in the solid state at ambient temperature.