Metal-Ligand-Containing Polymers: Terpyridine as the Supramolecular Unit

New and interesting properties can be obtained from macromolecular architectures functionalized with supramolecular moieties, particularly metal–ligand complexes. Self‐assembly, based on the selective control of noncovalent interactions, guides the creation of hierarchically ordered materials providing access to novel structures and new properties. This field has expanded significantly in the last two decades, and one of the most ubiquitous functionalities is terpyridine. Despite its wide‐spread use, much basic knowledge regarding the binding of terpyridine with metal ions remains unknown. Here, the binding constants of PEG‐substituted terpyridine in relation to other literature reports are studied and a few examples of supramolecular materials from our laboratory are summarized. Terpyridine‐complex containing homopolymers (left) and block copolymers (right) behaved as rigid‐rod‐like molecules due to the increase in persistence length generated by the metal complex. This leads to interesting self‐assembling including hierarchical length scales in the block copolymer.