Organometallic polymers of arenes coordinated to group VI and VIII transition metals

This review focuses on the synthesis and properties of organometallic polymers of arenes coordinated to transition metals of groups VI and VIII. This category of polymers includes systems where the metallic moiety is coordinated to the arenes prior to, or following polymn. Nucleophilic arom. substitution of transition metal complexed haloarenes with various di-nucleophiles gave rise to polymeric materials with pendent metallic moieties. Condensation reactions of monomer complexes with org. reagents were employed in the synthesis of these materials. An alternative approach to the formation of organometallic polymers is via coordination of metallic moieties to the arom. backbone of purely org. polymers. The polymeric materials with pendent metallic moieties generally exhibited an increase in soly. relative to their org. analogs. Some of these polymers have also displayed interesting electrochem. and optical properties.