Polymeric metal complexes materials based

The continuous availability of trillions of independent microreactors greatly multiplied the initial mixture of extraterrestrial organics and hydrothermal vent-produced chemicals into a rich variety of adsorbed and transformed materials, including lipids, amphiphiles, chiral metal complexes, amino add polymers, and nudeo-tide bases. Production and chiral amplification of polypeptides and other polymeric molecules would be induced by exposure of absorbed amino adds and organics to dehydration/rehydration cydes promoted by heat-flows beneath a sea-level hydro-thermal field or by sporadic subaerial exposure of near-shore vents and surfaces. In this environment the e.e. of chiral amino adds could have provided the ligands required for any metal centers capable of catalyzing enantiomeric dominance. The auto-amplification of a small e.e. of i-amino adds, whether extraterrestrially delivered or fluctuationally induced, thus becomes conceptually reasonable. 

We now present several useful, or potentially useful, systems based on luminescent metal complexes in organic or inorganic supports. The probe molecules were chosen based on the above guidelines. Each probe is supported in some way by a second material to produce a practical device. The results presented show how metal complexes can be applied to diverse problems. These results also identify some problem areas with polymeric supports. We discuss some of our insights into the design and modeling of such systems and describe measurements that help unravel these complex systems. 

The chemistry of metal complexes featuring alkyne and alkynyl (acetylide) ligands has been an area of immense interest for decades. Even the simplest examples of these, the mononuclear metal acetylide complexes L MC=CR, are now so numerous and the extent of their reaction chemistry is so diverse as to defy efforts at a comprehensive review. " The utility of these complexes is well documented. Some metal alkynyl complexes have been used as intermediates in preparative organic chemistry and together with derived polymeric materials, many have useful physical properties including liquid crystallinity and nonlinear optical behaviour. The structural properties of the M—C=C moiety have been used in the construction of remarkable supramolecular architectures based upon squares, boxes, and other geometries. ... 

In cases where metals or metal ions can contaminate the products, reaction vessels fabricated from inert polymeric materials restrict that possibility. A significant example involved the reaction of maltol with aqueous methylamine to give l,2-dimethyl-3-hydroxypyrid-4-one. The product is a metal chelator employed for the oral treatment of iron overload. Consequently, it is an excellent metal scavenger but must be produced under stringent conditions that preclude metal complexation. Literature conditions involved heating maltol in aqueous methylamine at reflux for 6 h, the product was obtained in 50% yield, but required decolourisation with charcoal135. With the CMR, the optimal reaction time was 1.3 min, and the effluent was immediately diluted with acetone and the near colourless product crystallised from this solvent in 65% yield (Scheme 9.18). A microwave-based batch-wise preparation of 3-hydroxy-2-methylpyrid-4-one from maltol and aqueous ammonia was also developed. 

Chapters 5 through 8 describe new polymeric materials that display useful optical properties. In Chapter 5, Lees discusses the use of photoluminescent metal complexes as probes to explore the properties of polymers while in Chapters 6, 7, and 8 Wang, Wiederrecht and Sponslor, respectively, and coauthors describe the properties of unique new polymer- and liquid crystalline-based materials. In the final chapters a variety of novel polymeric and supramolecular materials that display interesting and useful photochemical and optical properties are described. 

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