Isomerism and symmetry of stacked polymeric phthalocyaninnes and related polymers

The number of isomers ir,t for stacked polymeric phthalocyanines in which each phthalocyanine ring is tetrasubstituted or octasubstituted with two different substituents (each benzene moiety substituted with both substitutents) is determined to be where m is the number of substituted phthalonitrile molecules incorporated into the polymer and x is the number of phthalocyanine macrocycles (degree of polymerization; m = 4x). Specifically, for a stacked polymeric phthalocyanine with x = 2; there exist 298 isomers. The stacked polymeric phthalocyanines with substituted phthalocyanine rings possess different symmetry groups (D2h, D2d, C4, C2V or CS E as sole symmetry operation). The results are valid for stacking of other macrocycles similar to phthalocyanine such as prophyrins.