Three new organometallic homopolymers and a copolymer have been obtained by radical polymerization of acrylic monomers. The monomers were obtained by bridge splitting reaction from cyclopalladated dinuclear species and the appropriate imines. The polymers exhibit good thermal acid chemical stability and are soluble in common organic solvents. Their potential ability to display second order nonlinear optical activity was tested by solvatochromic effect measurements on the corresponding monomers. In particular, the copolymer appears to be the most versatile in consideration of its thermal behaviour, solubility and inherent viscosity. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.