Highly coloured organometallic thermoplastics: Polymers incorporating azo dyes.

Interest in organometallic polymers is due to their applications as chem. sensors, electrocatalysts, modified electrodes and photo-active mol. devices. The incorporation of organometallic moieties into the backbone of org. mols. has modified the optical, magnetic and thermal properties of these systems. These types of materials are known to display liq. crystallinity, ferromagnetism, as well as nonlinear optical and catalytic properties. Recently interest in polymers contg. azo dyes in their side chains or backbones has grown due to their liq. cryst., nonlinear optic properties. This research group has prepd. a no. of classes and types of organometallic polymers contg. azobenzene or hetrayl azo dyes. In these polymers the azo dyes were incorporated into either the side chains or backbones. Here, a review of the synthetic methodol., spectroscopic anal., and phys. characterizations of these materials will be discussed.