Alcohol- and water-soluble bis(tpy)quaterthiophenes with phosphonium side groups: new conjugated units for metallo-supramolecular polymers.

Bis(tpy)quaterthiophenes with symmetrically distributed two and four 6-bromohexyl side groups were prepared and modified by the reaction with triethylphosphine to give the corresponding ionic species. Both ionic and non-ionic bis(tpy)quaterthiophenes (unimers) were assembled with Zn(2+) and Fe(2+) ions to conjugated metallo-supramolecular polymers (MSPs), of which the ionic ones are soluble in alcohols and those derived from tetrasubstituted unimers are soluble even in water. The differences in assembly are specified between systems with (i) ionic and non-ionic unimers, (ii) Zn(2+) and Fe(2+) ion couplers, and (iii) methanol and water solvents. A substantial decrease in the stability of Fe-MSPs and a surprisingly high red shift of the luminescence band of Zn-MSPs were observed on going from methanol to aqueous solutions.