Electropolymerized films of redox-active ruthenium complexes for multistate near-infrared electrochromism, ion sensing, and information storage

This paper summarizes our recent progress on the preparations and applications of electropolymerized thin films of redox-active ruthenium complexes. Thin films of vinyl-functionalized diruthenium or ruthenium-amine conjugated complexes are prepared by reductive electropolymerization. The resulting films are useful for multistate near-infrared electrochromism, ion sensing, and mimicking flip-flop and flip-flap-flop logic gates. The oxidative electropolymerization of diruthenium complexes with two distal triarylamine units affords electropolymers with an alternating diruthenium and tetraphenylbenzidine structural unit. The applications of the resulting films in multistate near-infrared electrochromism and resistive memory are discussed.