Electropolymerisable dithiolene complexes

The emerging field of polymerisable metal dithiolenes, where one or more of the ligands is capable of covalently linking to another, is discussed and the physical and electronic properties of the molecular and polymeric materials compared. Materials that display both the interesting redox and optical properties of metal dithiolenes, whilst possessing the enhanced stability and electronic communication of an organic polymer framework, would find widespread application in many areas of materials science. The rational design of such materials is therefore of key importance in the production of new dithiolene containing functional materials for the development of novel multi-functional devices. Although the field is currently small, many interesting observations have already been made that allowed us to relate aspects of structure to function. In particular, the redox and optical properties appear to be strongly dependent on the linking positions within the polymer, imposed by the ligand design, and able to be tuned through strategies such as copolymerisation.