Amphiphilic well-defined ABA ruthenium(II)-bis-terpyridine block copolymers

Self-recognition and self-assembly are the two main concepts on which supramol. chem. is based, involving weak and non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, van der Waals, coordinative and ionic interactions. From all the mentioned weak interactions, metal-ligand coordination gained a particular interest for the synthesis of supramol. structures due to the fact that the coordination bond is highly directional, a wide range of easily functionalized ligands such as terpyridines is available, and the interaction strength can be fine-tuned by choosing appropriate metal ions. Furthermore, the presence of a metal complex in the "supra-structure" introduces addnl. electrochem., photophys., catalytic and magnetic properties. In the present contribution we discuss the synthesizes, characterization and the properties of the amphiphilic ABA block copolymers obtained via Ru(II) terpyridine complexation. [on SciFinder (R)]