Structures, properties, and applications of soluble polyazulene and azulene-containing copolymers

Abstract

A series of azulene-based conjugated polymers and their model compounds have been synthesized and their interesting properties reported. These novel materials feature many interesting properties, such as the chromic effect upon protonation, high conductivity upon either doping or protonation, formation of the charge-transfer complex with electron-acceptors, coordination with transitional metal complexes, and the formation of stable polyradicals. These advanced materials offer technologically useful applications in, for example, electrochromic devices, molecular electronics, catalysis, and anti-oxidants. Furthermore, to gain insight into the relationship between the structure and properties of these conjugated polymers, corresponding model compounds were synthesized and their single crystals were prepared. Results reveal that these are ideal model compounds for investigating the structure-properties relationship, doping mechanism, band gap engineering of our copolymers, and the coordination mode of the formation of hybrids.