Red-colored and solvent-free membranes based on the picket fence cobaltporphyrin (CoP)
complexed with two or three kinds of polymer−ligands were prepared, and their visible absorbance
responses to oxygen partial pressure were studied. The four CoP complexes with copolymers of 4- and
1-vinylimidazole and 4- and 2-vinylpyridine as a polymer−ligand were characterized by different oxygen
affinity: In this order of the copolymers, the oxygen affinity of CoP was decreased by a factor of 10. The
membrane composed of the three CoP complexes displayed a selective and continuous response in the
visible absorbance ascribed to the oxygen-adduct formation over a wide range of oxygen partial pressure,
i.e., 0.01−76 cmHg at atmospheric total pressure. On the other hand, the membrane composed of the
two complexes with strong and weak affinity responded in a stepwise manner to oxygen partial pressure.
The CoP complexed with and fixed in the polymer−ligands could form an oxygen adduct rapidly and
reversibly just as the CoP complex did in a solution. The oxygen response rate of the membrane was
shortened inversely with the square root of its thickness. The operational lifetime was longer than 1
month, which was much prolonged for the CoP complexed with the fluoroalkyl methacrylate copolymers:
The latter also displayed a selective and reversible oxygen response in water.