Synthesis and characterization of a novel liquid crystalline side chain metallopolymer

Abstract

The synthesis of a novel kind of form-retaining liquid crystalline crosslinked metallopolymer is reported. Copper(II) is complexed by Schiff's base units as part of a mesogenic side chain polymer. This leads to remarkable antiferromagnetic exchange interactions between the copper centers that are not present in related monomeric model compounds. IR spectroscopic investigations in the region 4000 - 200cm-1, X-ray diffractometry and temperature dependent magnetic susceptibility measurements were carried out to elucidate the structure of this new material. The observed considerably strong antiferromagnetic coupling is assumed to be due to the interactions between the copper centers through oxygen bridges in the polymeric matrix.