Charge transfer complexes and salts of ionenes

A review of the synthesis and properties of ionenes is presented. Particular attention is paid to the electrical and related properties of conductive teteracyano-p-quinodimethane (TCNQ) complex salts of ionenes containing ammonium or sulfonium groups in the main chain and to their chemical stability. The recent work on preparation of such ionenes with inorganic and organic counterions which show interesting linear and nonlinear optical properties is also discussed. It is shown that in the solid state ionenes act as a kind of a matrix fixing, in a chemically controlled way, positions and distribution of different kinds of counterions. Because the reaction of counterion exchange is easy in the case of ionenes it provides a convenient way to prepare a broad class of polyelectrolytes with many different properties.