Functionalised norbornene derivatives

Successful ring-opening cross-metathesis with symmetrical internal acyclic alkenes was, however, achieved by Blechert and Schneider [49]. Reaction of a variety of functionalised norbornene derivatives with fraws-hex-3-ene in the presence of the ruthenium vinylalkylidene catalyst 4 yielded the ring-opened products as predominantly trans-trans isomers (for example Eq. 33). 

This is the case of the first study reporting on the ROMP of fatty-acid derivatives [57], a subject that has been studied by the research team of Larock for almost a decade. In this first publication, castor oil was functionalised with 5-norbornene-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride. Resulting monomer structure was submitted to ring-opening metathesis copolymerisation with cyclooctene (Scheme 5.15) to produce thermoset polyesters with good thermo-mechanical properties. 

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