Design and electropolymerization of new chiral thiophene–salen complexes

New chiral thiophene-containing salen ligands have been synthesized. The corresponding metal complexes (Co, Cu, Cr and Ni) were prepared and electropolymerized at a platinum electrode by cyclic voltammetry. The resulting polymers exhibited stable and quasi-reversible redox processes when submitted to voltammetric repeated scans, whatever the nature of the metal or the structure of the ligand. Preliminary catalytic tests have been performed to examine the efficiency of these new chiral polymeric complexes as asymmetric heterogeneous catalysts.