Cu-Catalyzed Azide-Pt-Acetylide Cycloaddition: Progress toward a Conjugated Metallopolymer via iClick

This report describes the iClick synthesis and characterization of a metallopolymer that contains contiguous conjugation across the polymer repeat units and Pt(II) ions. A bifunctional A-Pt-B monomer, where A = azido and B = acetylide, was synthesized. Using a Cu(I) source, the A-Pt-B monomer was polymerized via azide-alkyne cycloaddition to give a low-molecular-weight metallopolymer. Photophysical interrogation and computation modeling of the metallopolymer indicates limited conjugation and the spectra are dominated by ligand-centered transitions and emission.