Polarized Light-Induced Molecular Orientation Control of Rigid Schiff Base Ni(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II) Binuclear Complexes as Polymer Composites

Abstract

We have investigated linearly polarized UV light-induced molecular orientation due to Weigert effect of composite materials of new six binuclear nickel(II), copper(II), and zinc(II) complexes of two rigid Schiff base ring ligands (L1 and L2) composite materials with methyl orange (MO), an azo-dye, in polyvinylalchol (PVA) cast films. To compare the degree of molecular orientation, two ligands, namely flexible aliphatic cyclohexane (ML1: NiL1, CuL1, ZnL1) and rigid aromatic (ML2: NiL2, CuL2, ZnL2), were synthesized using amine moiety. We have also characterized these complexes by means of elemental analysis, IR, and UV-vis spectra, single crystal or powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and so on. Composite materials of ML1 or ML2+MO+PVA were also prepared to separately disperse the solutes in a polymer matrix. For any metal complexes, optical anisotropy (represented as the R parameters) of ML2+MO+PVA was larger than ML1+MO+PVA because of the rigidness of the ligands.

Keywords

• Schiff base
• binuclear complex
• nickel
• copper
• zinc
• polarized light
• PVA
• methyl orange
• Weigert effect