Polyacetylene carbene

A second major class of ion-molecule reactions that is relatively poorly studied consists of systems involving very unsaturated hydrocarbon neutrals, especially radicals. The unsaturated nature of the organic chemistry in interstellar clouds leads to sizeable abundances of very unsaturated hydrocarbons such as the polyacetylenes HC H, the carbenes H2C , the radicals C H, and the clusters Cn. Although some work has been done on the chemistry of such species, much of the relevant ion-molecule chemistry involving ions such as C+, CH3, and even C2H2 must be guessed at from generalizations based on a small number of studied systems. 

Reactions of Cjq with metal carbene complexes also yield the [6,6] methano-fullerenes [392]. These adducts are probably not formed via a carbene addition, but via a formal [2-1-2] cycloaddition under formation of a metalla cyclobutane intermediate. The Fischer carbene complex [mefhyl(methoxymethylene)]pentacarbonyl chromium can be utilized to prepare l,2-mefhyl(methoxymethano)-fullerene in 20% yield [392]. A tungsten carbene complex was primarily used to initiate the formation of a polyacetylene polymer, but it was discovered that addition of to the complex-polymer-mixture improves the polymerization and dramatically increases the catalytic activity of the carbene complex [393]. can be integrated into the polymer via carbene addition. 

The ROMP of 136 may be used as the first stage in the preparation of polyacetylene molecules with mesogenic (liquid-crystalline) functional groups at the chain ends the ROMP of 136 is initiated by a molybdenum carbene complex and the living ends terminated by reaction with a substituted benzaldehyde bearing a mesogenic group, followed... 

Carbene or cuprene are technical names for polyacetylene. It is obtained as a cork-like substance, which is in a very fine state of dispersion, by polymerizing acetylene on copper catalysts. 

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

Compounds in this category are bicyclo[3.3.0]octene (15), tricyclo[5.2.1.0 ]dec-3-ene (16), exo-tricyclo[5.2.1.0 ]dec-8-ene (17), benzvalene (18), and delta-cyclene (19). Of these, 15 and 16 do not undergo ROMP with conventional catalysts (Ofstead 1972), but 17 does so (Oshika 1968). The ROMP of 18 proeeeds smoothly using tungsten carbene initiators, and films of the polymer 18P can be cast directly from the reaction mixture (Swager 1988, 1989). The polymer has a tendency to cross-link and to decompose spontaneously once isolated in dry form, so is best handled in solution, especially as the decomposition can be explosive. The DSC thermogram of the polymer shows an exotherm at 153°C, attributed mainly to isomerization to polyacetylene 20, eqn. (3), and a second exotherm at... 

When conducting the ROMP of norbornene or cyclooctadiene in miniemulsions [82], two approaches were followed (i) addition of a catalyst solution to a miniemulsion of the monomer and (ii) addition of the monomer to a miniemulsion of Grubbs catalyst in water. With the first approach it was possible to synthesize stable latexes with a high conversion, whereas for the second approach particles of >400 nm were created, without coagulum, but with 100% conversion. Subsequently, a water-soluble ruthenium carbene complex [poly(ethylene oxide)-based catalyst] was prepared and used in the direct miniemulsion ROMP of norbornene [83], whereby particles of 200-250 nm were produced. The catalytic polymerization of norbornene in direct miniemulsion was also carried out in the presence of an oil-soluble catalyst generated in situ, or with a water-soluble catalyst [84] the reaction was faster when using the oil-soluble catalyst. Helical-substituted polyacetylene could be efficiently polymerized in direct miniemulsion to yield a latex with particles that ranged between 60 and 400 nm in size, and which displayed an intense circular dichroism [85] that increased as the particle size decreased. The films were prepared from dried miniemulsion latexes that had been mixed with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) in order to conserve the optical activity. 

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