Metallopolymers with transition metals in the main chain are of growing interest due to their useful functionalities that arise from the presence of metal centers.1 On the other hand, chiral polymers are emerging as promising materials with vast potential applications in chiral recognition, asymmetric catalysis, enantioselective discrimination, etc.2 However, the combination of these two research areas yet remains virtually unexplored. Here we report the introduction of chirality in a metallopolymer polyelectrolyte, polycobaltoceniumethylene (PCE), through the combination with chiral counter anions. Chiral structure of PCE was firstly achieved by electrostatic complexation with DNA templates, a right-handed double helical anionic polyelectrolyte, in aqueous solutions (Figure 1, left), which generated relatively monodisperse insoluble nanoparticles.3 To prepare soluble complexes, we subsequently employed amino acid-derived chiral anionic surfactants4 as the counter anions to neutralize the PCE mainchain and simultaneously drive the formation of chiral structures. This has led to the formation of brush-like chiral PCE complexes (Figure 1, right), which are well soluble in organic solvents and can further self-assemble into long fibers and twisted ribbons in selective solvents. Figure 1.  Schematic representations of (left) [PCE][DNA] and (right) [PCE][chiral anionic surfactant] complexes.References G. R. Whittell, M. D. Hager, U. S. Schubert, I. Manners, Nature Mater. 2011, 10, 176.E. Yashima, K. Maeda, H. Iida, Y. Furusho, K. Nagai, Chem. Rev. 2009, 109, 6102.H. Qiu, J. B. Gilroy, I. Manners, Chem. Commum. 2013, 49, 42.M. Takehara, I. Yoshimura, K. Takizawa, R. Yoshida, J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 1972, 49, 157.

Chiral metallopolymers: Introduction of chirality in poly(cobaltoceniumethylene) via chiral counter anions

248th National Meeting (2014)

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