5,10,15-triphenyl-20-(4-hydroxyphenyl) chloroporphyrin indium was synthesized. Using 2-chloropropionyl chloride end-capped mono-hydroxy metalloporphyin as initiator, methyl methacrylate as monomer and CuCl/PMDETA as the catalyst system, a new linear polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) with asymmetric indium porphyrin end functionalized was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) method. The structure of porphyrin compounds was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis) and nuclear magnetic resonance hydrogen spectrum (¹H NMR) techniques.

Molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of the linear polymers were obtained by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). It indicated that the molecular weight distribution was narrow and the molecular weight distribution range was between 1.11 and 1.21. Meanwhile, the polymerization reaction had a good controllability.

By Z-scan method, the third-order nonlinear optical properties of porphyrin compounds were tested using a frequency-doubled mode locked Nd: YAG picosecond laser system at wavelength of 532 nm with 21 ps pulse, the results showed that the third-order nonlinear polarizability (χ⁽³⁾) of polymer with polymerization degree of 16 and molecular weight of 2414 is 1.144 × 10⁻¹² esu.