Poly picrate complexes

Poly(ether crown) picrate complexes (4.30) under UV irradiation can liberate 4 -acetobenzo-15-crown-5 or 4 -acetobenzo-18-crown-6 by the following reaction [1967] ... 

There are fewer reports of linear, acyclic, ion-binding polymers. It has been reported that poly(oxyethylene) improves the solubility of alkali metals in ethers such as tetrahydrofuran, dime thoxy ethane, and diglyme, stabilizes fluorenyl alkali metal compounds, accelerates Williamson reactions and accelerates several other nucleophilic reactions.All of these effects were attributed to the ability of poly(oxyethylene) to complex with cations in solution. Yanagida and coworkers studied the alkali metal cation complexation of poly(oxyethylene), using a picrate salt extraction technique similar to the one used by Pedersen and Frensdorff. Polymers with more than 23 oxyethylene units were effective iono-phores for potassium, with degrees of extraction (percent extracted) comparable to crown ethers. The extractability per oxyethylene unit was nearly constant, and the complex stability increased linearly with increasing numbers of repeating oxyethylene units. Seven oxyethylenes were the minimum number of repeat units necessary to bind potassium ion effectively in the aqueous phase. The less efficient extraction of short-chain poly(oxyethylene) is apparently caused by its hydrophilic character. 

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