Synthesis and characterization of terpyridine-based fluorescent coordination polymers

Complexation properties of 2,2':6',2''-terpyridine (tpy) have been studied with a series of first row transition metal ions by UV-vis, 1H NMR and isothermal titration calorimetry and ƒ´H values for the tpy complexation processes have been determined. These studies reveal that Zn2+ is the best suited metal ion for the reversible coordination of the terpyridine ligand. Thus, supramolecular coordination polymerization of perylene bisimide fluorophores containing terpyridine functionalities have been investigated by using Zn2+ as metal ion. The formation of the dimeric complexes in the case of monotopic model comounds and coordination polymerization of ditopic functional building blocks have been confirmed by 1H NMR studies. The optical properties of dimeric and polymeric complexes have been investigated by UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. The Zn2+ coordination to the terpyridine unit does not effect the advantageous fluorescence properties of perylene bisimide moieties. The reversibility of the formation of coordination polymers has been established by 1H NMR and additionally by DOSY NMR and fluorescence anisotropy measurements. Coordination polymer strands can be visualized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), which also reveals the formation of an ordered monolayer film at higher concentration. The average polymer length has been determined by AFM to 15 repeat units, which correlates well with the value estimated by 1H NMR to >10 repeat units.