Poly Heck-coupling route

Some drawbacks of the precursor routes mentioned above have been overcome by the use of polycondensation- and C-C-bond-coupling reactions. To produce soluble PPV-, poly(thiophene)-, or poly(pyrrol) derivatives for spin coating preparation, various types of transition metal catalyzed reactions, such as the Heck-, Suzuki-, and Sonogashira-reaction, Wittig- and Wittig-Horner-type coupling reactions, or the McMurry- and Knoevenagel-condensation have been utilized. 

The wide variety of coupling methods adapted from organic synthesis to condensation polymerization of just one CP can be appreciated from Fig. 5-12. for poly(pheny-lene). Typical condensations and eliminations adapted to syntheses of such CPs as poly(phenylene) and poly(phenylene vinylene) (P(PV)) are illustrated in Fig. 5-13. Fig. 5-14 shows the variety of precursor routes available to P(PV). More recently, the Yu group [86] has demonstrated application of Pd-catalyzed Stille and Heck reactions to the synthesis of poly(thiophene) (P(T)) derivatives (cf. Fig. 5-15. Besides the Grignard couplings such as shown in Eq. 1.6, Chapter 1, P(T) s can also be prepared via a variety of other procedures, such as Friedel-Crafts alkylation [87], and direct oxidation with FeClj as for P(Py) above. 

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