Post-Coordination of Multinuclear Transitional Metal Clusters to Azulene-Based Polymers: A Novel Strategy for Tuning Properties in π-Conjugated Polymers

Direct treatment of azulene-thiophene copolymers with Ru(3)(CO)(12) led to unique examples of coordination of a multinuclear transition metal cluster to conjugated polymers. The polymer-metal cluster formation could be confirmed by (1)H NMR spectroscopic studies, and the coordination mode could be deduced from the crystallographic structure of model compounds. The composition of ruthenium carbonyl cluster could be used as a governing factor to tune the electronic, optical, and morphological properties of the organometallic polymers. [structure: see text]