Self-Assembly and Applications of Polyferrocenylsilane Block Copolymers

Self-Assembly and Applications of Polyferrocenylsilane Block Copolymers 

George R. Whittell, Jessica Gwyther, David A. Rider and Ian Manners 

Complex Macromolecular Architectures Synthesis, Characterization, and Self-Assembly, First Edition. 

Edited by Nikos Hadjichristidis, Akira Hirao, Yasuyuki Tezuka and Filip Du Prez. 

This chapter focuses on polyferrocenylsilanes (PFSs) where iron and silicon are in the main chain. Subsequently, PFS block copolymers will be reviewed. These materials represent an area of rapidly growing interest as a result of their self-assembly into phase-separated metal-rich nanodomain structures in thin films and micelles in block-selective solvents. The resulting nanostructured materials have a wealth of potential applications and recent breakthroughs in this area are discussed. The subject matter of the chapter is divided up into subsections covering PFS homopolymer and block copolymer synthesis, solution and solid-state self-assembly and applications of the latter, which have been extensively developed by ourselves and our collaborators and also by other research groups. 

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