Toward Supramolecular Liquid-Crystalline Materials: Synthesis and Characterization of Platinum (II) Acetylide Complexes

Abstract

Bipyridine complexes of platinum (II) complexes have long been recognized to possess a host of interesting, and potentially useful, structural, optical and electronic properties. By elaborating the structure of the bipyridine moiety of [bpyPt(II)Cl2] with a pair of b-branched Guerbet ester fragments, liquid-crystalline derivatives of this unique chromophore have been prepared. In several cases, the liquid-crystalline behavior was observed to persist well below room temperature. Efforts to utilize acetylide linkages to couple either multiple liquid-crystalline bipyridine platinum fragments or a mixture of these bipyridine fragments and alkylated carbazole moieties are currently underway. As part of these efforts, a series of diarylacetylide model complexes has been prepared via substitution of the chloride ligands. The optical, electronic and phase behavior of this new series of materials, as well as progress toward the creation of the targeted supramolecular arrays, will be presented