Novel Assemblies of Sn(II) Coordinated Polyimide Supported by a Ligand Containing N-Heterocyclic Phenantroline Unit Su ¨leyman Ko ¨ytepe Æ Nevin Gu ¨rbu ¨z Æ Ismail O ¨ zdemir Æ Turgay Seckin Received: 14 January 2008 / Accepted: 6 February 2008 / Published online: 26 February 2008 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008 Abstract The purpose of this work is to investigate the possibility of the production of novel metal coordinated polyimides. This research primarily focuses on novel metal complex assemblies of Sn(II) linked to the polymer molecule by a ligand containing an N-heterocyclic phenantroline unit in the main chain. Polyimide with phenantroline units in the main chain was synthesized utilizing condensation polymer- ization of aromatic dianhyrides and the bis(5-am inophenantroline)dichlorotin(II) to yield metal coordinated polyimides. Characterization by thermal analysis, refractive index, and dielectric analysis revealed distinct differences between these new materials and the classical polyimides. Keywords Metal complexes Á Metal-polymers Á Polyimide Á Tin(II) 1 Introduction In the last decades, metal containing polymers have grown from an unusual topic to one of the foremost research fields in chemistry. Inter- and intra-molecular supramolecular interactions are of major significance for most biological processes such as the formation of biomolecules for cata- lytic processes [1]. The resulting compounds are expected to reveal new chemical, physical as well as biological properties. As well, a growing field in chemistry is repre- sented at present by the combination of supramolecular chemistry with classical polymer chemistry [2–6]. Besides hydrogen bonds, metal/ligand interactions are of special interest. Several examples have been recently described for the defined introduction of such moieties into polymer backbones or side chains [7]. The arrangement of such polymers with metal-complexing units in the side chains also opens new ways for the construction of graft copoly- mers. Grafting procedures on polymers and polymer- analogous reactions are well-known in polymer chemistry and play an important role for the design of materials [8– 14]. For this purpose, covalent reactions have been usually utilized. However, combining this classical polymer approach with supramolecular chemistry allows the con- struction of new materials via self-organization processes. Polyimides are important polymers with a rigid main chain and good thermal stability. Polyimides have been widely used in many different technological areas such as microelectronics, coating, composites, separation mem- branes, and fiber applications [15]. Most of the polyimides reported to date are based on purely organic systems. Relatively little research has been devoted to metal-con- taining polyimides. In most of the examples reported in the literature, studies in metal-containing polyimides were focused on the polyimide–metal interaction and the adhe- sive properties of polymers on metal surfaces [16–18] due to the importance of polyimides as interlayer dielectric materials in microelectronic industry. Another application of metal-containing polyimides is the preparation of reflective surfaces, which involve the doping of metallic precursors into polyimides. The resulting polyimide films formed may be used as reflector films for radio frequency antennas, surface conducting tapes, contacts in microelec- tronics, etc [19]. Polyimides that were doped with gold or silver have been reported. Silver hexafluoroacetylacetone, [20] auric acid, or triethylphosphinegold(I) succinimide [21] have been used as the precursor for silver and gold doping. There have been few examples of metal-containing S. Ko ¨ytepe Á N. Gu ¨rbu ¨z Á I. O ¨ zdemir Á T. Seckin (&) Faculty of Science, Chemistry Department, Inonu University, Malatya 44280, Turkey e-mail: tseckin@inonu.edu.tr 123 J Inorg Organomet Polym (2008) 18:290–295 DOI 10.1007/s10904-008-9203-2