Ring-Opening Polymerisation of Low-Strain Nickelocenophanes: Synthesis and Magnetic Properties of Polynickelocenes with Carbon and Silicon Main Chain Spacers

Rebekah L.N. Hailes, Rebecca A. Musgrave, Alexander F.R. Kilpatrick, Andrew D. Russell, George R. Whittell, Dermot O'Hare*, Ian Manners

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Polymetallocenes based on ferrocene, and to a lesser extent cobaltocene, have been well-studied, whereas analogous systems based on nickelocene are virtually unexplored. It has been previously shown that poly(nickelocenylpropylene) [Ni(η5-C5H4)2(CH2)3]n is formed as a mixture of cyclic (6x) and linear (7) components by the reversible ring-opening polymerisation (ROP) of tricarba[3]nickelocenophane [Ni(η5-C5H4)2(CH2)3] (5). Herein the generality of this approach to main-chain polynickelocenes is demonstrated and the ROP of tetracarba[4]nickelocenophane [Ni(η5-C5H4)2(CH2)4] (8), and disila[2]nickelocenophane [Ni(η5-C5H4)2(SiMe2)2] (12) is described, to yield predominantly insoluble homopolymers poly(nickelocenylbutylene) [Ni(η5-C5H4)2(CH2)4]n (13) and poly(tetramethyldisilylnickelocene) [Ni(η5-C5H4)2(SiMe2)2]n (14), respectively. The ROP of 8 and 12 was also found to be reversible at elevated temperature. To access soluble high molar mass materials, copolymerisations of 5, 8, and 12 were performed. Superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry measurements of 13 and 14 indicated that these homopolymers behave as simple paramagnets at temperatures greater than 50 K, with significant antiferromagnetic coupling that is notably larger in carbon-bridged 6x/7 and 13 compared to the disilyl-bridged 14. However, the behaviour of these polynickelocenes deviates substantially from the Curie–Weiss law at low temperatures due to considerable zero-field splitting.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1044-1054
Number of pages11
JournalChemistry - A European Journal
Volume25
Issue number4
Early online date26 Nov 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Jan 2019

Keywords

  • copolymerization
  • magnetic polymers
  • metallopolymers
  • ring-opening polymerization

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