Condensation polymerization early research

Vinylpyrroles and vinylindoles are extremely sensitive to acid-catalyzed dimerization and polymerization and it is significant that much of the early research was conducted on systems which were produced in situ. Even by this approach, the dimerization of, for example, 2-(3-indolyl)propene and l-(3-indolyl)-l-phenylethylene was difficult to prevent (see the formation of 110 and 120, Section 3.05.1.2.8). Similarly, although it is possible to isolate ethyl 2-(2- and 3-indolyl)propenoates, they appear to be extremely unstable at room temperature even in the absence of acid (81UP30500) to give [ 4 + 2] cycloadducts of the type (348) (cf. 77JCS(P1)1204>. For many years simple vinylpyrroles also eluded isolation, on account of their facile acid-catalyzed polymerization. Application of the Wittig reaction, however, permits the synthesis of vinyl-pyrroles and -indoles under relatively mild and neutral conditions (see Section 3.05.2.5). In contrast, heteroarylvinyl ketones, esters, nitriles and nitro compounds, obtained by condensation of the appropriate activated methylene compound with the heteroaryl aldehydes (see Section 3.05.2.5), are thermally stable and... 

The early development of polyamides started with the work of W.H. Carothers and his colleagues, who, in 1935, first synthesized nylon-6,6—a polyamide of hexamethylene diamine and adipic acid—after extensive and classical researches into condensation polymerization. 

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