Synthesis of new crosslinkable co-polymers containing a push–pull zinc porphyrin for non-linear optical applications

In this paper, the synthesis of a crosslinkable co-polymer containing new push–pull arylethynyl zinc porphyrins is described. The synthesis of porphyrin chromophores, analogous to Therien's porphyrin ( J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1996, 118, 1497–1503) functionalized with a methacrylic polymerizable group and a carboxylic acid crosslinking group was achieved with a new synthetic procedure leading to a higher overall yield compared to what was previously reported in the literature for similar and simpler structures. Radical copolymerization of the porphyrin chromophore with glycidyl methacrylate has then been carried out with success. This work opens a perspective on the possibility to integrate porphyrinic chromophore with high first-order molecular quadratic hyperpolarizability coefficient in opto-electronic devices. This work describes an efficient synthetic route to prepare a methacrylate co-polymer containing push–pull zinc porphyrin and glycidyl units.