Alkynes polyacetylenes

Polyacetylenes are the most important class of synthetic polymers containing conjugated carbon-carbon double bonds. Some optically active monomers have been used with the following conclusions. Polymers of 1-alkynes having a branched side-chain assume in solution a helical conformation. A chiral side-chain induces a predominant screw sense in these helices. In particular, for alkyl branching, it has been shown that (S) monomers lead to a left-handed screw sense. 

The coupling of a terminal alkyne with a 1-bromoalkyne in the presence of a copper(i) salt and an amine base (B), referred to as the Cadiot-Chodkiewicz coupling , is of particular synthetic importance because of the facile roiite it provides to unsymmetrical polyacetylenes with an even or odd number of triple bonds (equation 10). The reaction has been reviewed and these reviews should be... 

Besides processes (1) and (2), the reader should be aware that nucleophilic attacks on alkynes are treated in other chapters of this book, dealing with rearrangements, cyclizations, polyacetylenes, cyclic acetylenes and perhaps others. A number of publications overlap with ours in different ways and at different levels -. They treat individual alkynes or families " , e.g. acetylene, diacetylenes , acetylene dicarboxylic esters haloacetylenes , alkynyl ethers and thioethers > ynamines , fluoro-alkynes ethynyl ketpnes , nitroalkynes , etc. synthetic targets, e.g. pyrazoles , if-l,2,3-triazoles , isothiazoles , indolizines S etc. reagents, e.g. nitrones , lithium aluminium hydride , heterocyclic A -oxides - , azomethine ylids - , tertiary phosphorus compounds , miscellaneous dipolar nucleophiles - , etc. The reader will appreciate that all of these constitute alternate entries into our subject. 

A variety of copolymers of acetylene and other alkynes have been prepared. Copolymers of acetylene and methylacetylene (86), a soluble polyene, were more tractable than polyacetylene itself, but as the fraction of methylacetylene in the copolymer increased, both the tractability and the final conductivity of the iodine-doped polymer decreased. At an acetylene mole fraction of 0.5, the copolymer was insoluble, and the final conductivity had fallen from greater than 100 to 1 S/cm. Some plasticization remained, however, and the polymer could be stretched to elongation ratios as high as 7. Copolymers of acetylene and phenylacetylene containing 26% acetylene were soluble in methylene chloride (24). Like methylacetylene copolymers. 

Despite a report that complex 4(Sc Me) catalyzes the formation of oligo- and polyacetylene [95], alkyne chemistry is characterized by ligand exchange and dimerization reactions. 

In principle, conjugated materials may either be directly synthesized via metathesis polymerization of acetylene or 1-alkynes, via ROMP of various cyclooctatetraenes (COTs) or via ROMP of polyene precursors as realized in the Durham route [107-111]. The first direct polymerization of acetylene to yield black untreatable unsubstituted polyacetylene was achieved with W(N-2,6-i-Pr2-C6H3)(CH-t-Bu)(OC-t-Bu)2 [112]. In order to obtain soluble polymers, polyenes were prepared via the ROMP of a polyene-precursor, 7,8-bis(trifluoromethyl)tricyclo[4.2.2.02 5]deca-3,7,9-triene (TCDTF6), using initiators such as W(N-2,6-i-Pr2-C6H3)(CH-t-Bu)(OC-t-Bu)2) (Scheme 5.10) [113, 114]. 

Another example of self-assembly of porphyrin-containing polymer was illustrated by Li et al.73 Polyacetylene functionalized with fullerene and zinc porphyrin pendant groups were synthesized by polymerizing the corresponding fullerene/porphyrin substituted alkyne monomers with rhodium(I) norbomadiene catalyst (Scheme 5.5).74 Polymers with different ratio of C60 and porphyrin were synthesized. The polymers showed photocurrent response when the thin films were irradiated with white light, which was due to the electron transfer from the photo-excited porphyrin to the C60 units. In addition, the copolymers aggregated into ellipse-shaped nanorod structures with a diameter of approximately 100 nm and a length of... 

Scheme 34. Carbene-alkyne polymerization mechanism to generate polyacetylene derivatives.

From the heats of hydrogenation of these acyclic homoconjugated polyacetylenes we were able to derive an additivity value of —69.8 kcal/mol for the contribution of an interior alkyne... 

A growing array of different terminal and internal alkynes have been polymerized [8]. Many polyalkynes are air-stable, soluble materials, and not highly conjugated. As new catalysts allow the polymerization of alkynes with an increasing variety of substituents, an exploration of what properties unsaturated polymers have to offer is warranted. In general, substituted polyacetylenes may or may not be colored, and tend to be more rigid than saturated polymers. Selected materials are described below and compiled in Table 10-1. 

More recently, a Pd(II) salt was shown to catalyze the 1,2-insertion polymerization of a 7-oxanorbornadiene derivative (Fig. 10-16) [50]. The resulting saturated polymer, when heated, gives polyacetylene via a retro-Diels-Alder reaction. (This reaction is reminiscent of the Durham route to polyacetylene discussed below). One advantage of this technique over other routes is that it employs a late transition metal polymerization catalyst. Catalysts using later transition metals tend to be less oxophilic than the d° early transition metal complexes typically used for alkene and alkyne polymerizations [109,110]. Whereas tungsten alkylidene catalysts must be handled under dry anaerobic conditions, the Pd(II)-catalyzed reaction of water-insoluble monomers may be run as an aqueous emulson polymerization. 

The most recent application of olefin metathesis to the synthesis of polyenes has been described by Tao and Wagener [105,117], They use a molybdenum alkylidene catalyst to carry out acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) (Fig. 10-20) on either 2,4-hexadiene or 2,4,6-octatriene. The Wagener group had earlier demonstrated that, for a number of nonconjugated dienes [118-120], these polymerizations can be driven to high polymer by removal of the volatile product (e. g., 2-butene). To date, insolubility limits the extent of polymerization of unsaturated monomers to polyenes containing 10 to 20 double bonds. However, this route has some potential for the synthesis of new substituted polyacetylenes. Since most of the monomer unit is preformed before polymerization, it is possible that substitution patterns which cannot be incorporated into an alkyne or a cyclic olefin can be built into an ADMET monomer. 

In general, intermolecular [2 -I- 2] photocycloaddition of simple alkenes does not show satisfactory regioselective control. An approach to improve the reaction selectivity is use of a tether to constrain the reactive alkene functional groups proximate to each other and therefore allow the photocycloaddition to proceed. Tethers which have been employed include sugar alcohols such as d-maimitol and L-erythritol [101], diazacrown ethers [102], cyclophane [103], and silanes [104]. In all cases, the tether preorganized alkenes yield head-to-head adducts. The silane-tethered method can bind different alkene groups as well as alkynes, as shown in Scheme 27 [105]. Photoreactions of polyacetylenes and alkenes have also been investigated [106]. 

Dehydration of propargyl alcohols occurs commonly on mononuclear ruthenium complexes.[ l Water is formed from the terminal alkynic hydrogen and by the alcoholic OH this is the more common dehydration process (it is denoted Route A). These reactions afford organic intermediates leading to cumulene complexes useful for the synthesis of doped polyacetylenes or of non-linear optic materials. Dehydration of rhodium-coordinated propargyl alcohols " leads to free or coordinated cumulenes and can be catalyzed by alumina and chloride ions, Fig. 16. 

A number of syntheses of di- and polyacetylenes has been reported. 1-Iodo-l-alkynes couple with terminal acetylenes under palladium-copper catalysis to give 1,3-diynes thus y-iodopropargyl alcohol and phenylacetylene afford compound 30. Oxidative coupling of 1 -alkynes to yield symmetrical 1,3-diynes is brought about by air and copper(I) chloride in the presence of N, A -tetramethylethylenediamine (equation Trialkylsilyl sub-... 

It is a gas, which is kept in cylinders and used for soldering iron. This shows that the flame arising from the burning of acetylene is very, very hot. From acetylene, we make the polymer polyacetylene (it is now used in batteries for electric cars). Acetylene is adso an example of molecules containing triple C C bonds, which, as a group, are called alkynes. 

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