A palladium-catalysed multicomponent coupling approach to conjugated poly(1,3-dipoles) and polyheterocycles

Nat Commun. 2015 Jun 16:6:7411. doi: 10.1038/ncomms8411.

Abstract

Conjugated polymers have emerged over the past several decades as key components for a range of applications, including semiconductors, molecular wires, sensors, light switchable transistors and OLEDs. Nevertheless, the construction of many such polymers, especially highly substituted variants, typically involves a multistep synthesis. This can limit the ability to both access and tune polymer structures for desired properties. Here we show an alternative approach to synthesize conjugated materials: a metal-catalysed multicomponent polymerization. This reaction assembles multiple monomer units into a new polymer containing reactive 1,3-dipoles, which can be modified using cycloaddition reactions. In addition to the synthetic ease of this approach, its modularity allows easy adaptation to incorporate a range of desired substituents, all via one-pot reactions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't