Very high-spin organic polymers

This review is focused on a novel design for very high-spin organic polymers, i.e., polymers with large values of spin quantum number S in the ground state. Recently, the polymer with number average spin, S ≥ 40, an order of magnitude higher than S for the previously reported polymers, was prepared. The synthetic route to this high-spin polymer relies on multistep synthesis of tetrafunctionalized macrocyclic calix[4]arene modules, polymerization of the macrocyclic modules, and generation of radicals. The highly-crosslinked π-conjugated network provides multiple exchange coupling pathways for electron spin and alternating connectivity of two types of radical modules with unequal spins.