Polymers Containing the Hexafluorocyclobutane Ring

While several fluorocarbonpolymers that contain the hexafluorocyclobutane ring have been prepared, there is httle precedent in the chemical literature for the 

In 1988 Heinze and Burton reported a facile synthesis of various a,P,P-trifluorostyrenes. These trifluorostyrene compounds were reported to be unstable to cyclodimerization at room temperature when stored neat, especially the compounds that were para-substituted with electron-donating substituents. They described the preparation of one compound, l,4-bis(trifluorovinyl)benzene with the observation that the material gelled when allowed to stand neat overnight. They offered the explanation that the gel was a polymer network connected with fluorinated cyclobutanes. Burton later went on to utilize this dimerization reaction for the cross-linking of polyimide thermoplastics.  

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