Several kinds of novel azobenzene-containing polyelectrolytes with special molecular design have been developedfrom acryloyl chloride or epoxy based precursor polymers. The acryloyl chloride based precursor polymer

poly(acryloylchloride)

was prepared by free radical polymerization of acryloyl chloride. The azo polyelectrolytes were prepared by anesterification reaction between the precursor polymer and corresponding azo chromophores containing a reactive hydroxyl group

followed by hydrolysis of the unreacted acyl chloride groups.The epoxy based precursor polymer was prepared by the reaction between 1

4-cyclohexanedimethanol diglycidyl ether and aniline

and postfunctionallized by azo coupling reaction to form azo polymers containing chromophores with ionizable groups.The polyelectrolytes were characterized by elemental analysis

1H-NMR

IR and UV-Vis spectroscopy.The photodynamic and photoresponsive properties

as well as self-assembly of these azo polyelectrolytes are reported in this paper[1].