Metathesis Polymers

Keywords Liquid crystalline polymers Metathesis ROMP ADMET ALTMET... 

General methods for carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions are very important for tbe synthesis of pharmaceutical intermediates, fine chemicals, and specialty polymers. Metathesis and Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions have proved to be extremely useful for such applications. These reactions are also discussed in this chapter. 

Aqueous ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) was first described in 1989 (90) and it has been appHed to maleic anhydride (91). Furan [110-00-9] reacts in a Diels-Alder reaction with maleic anhydride to give exo-7-oxabicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene-2,3—dicarboxylate anhydride [6118-51 -0] (24). The condensed product is treated with a soluble mthenium(Ill) [7440-18-8] catalyst in water to give upon acidification the polymer (25). Several apphcations for this new copolymer have been suggested (91). 

The olefins that undergo metathesis include most simple and substituted olefins cycHc olefins give linear high molecular-weight polymers. The mechanism of the reaction is beheved to involve formation of carbene complexes that react via cycHc intermediates, ie, metaHacycles. Industrial olefin metathesis processes are carried out with soHd catalysts (30). 

A drawback to the Durham method for the synthesis of polyacetylene is the necessity of elimination of a relatively large molecule during conversion. This can be overcome by the inclusion of strained rings into the precursor polymer stmcture. This technique was developed in the investigation of the ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of benzvalene as shown in equation 3 (31). 

Acyclic diene molecules are capable of undergoing intramolecular and intermolec-ular reactions in the presence of certain transition metal catalysts molybdenum alkylidene and ruthenium carbene complexes, for example [50, 51]. The intramolecular reaction, called ring-closing olefin metathesis (RCM), affords cyclic compounds, while the intermolecular reaction, called acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization, provides oligomers and polymers. Alteration of the dilution of the reaction mixture can to some extent control the intrinsic competition between RCM and ADMET. 

Olefin metatheses are equilibrium reactions among the two-reactant and two-product olefin molecules. If chemists design the reaction so that one product is ethylene, for example, they can shift the equilibrium by removing it from the reaction medium. Because of the statistical nature of the metathesis reaction, the equilibrium is essentially a function of the ratio of the reactants and the temperature. For an equimolar mixture of ethylene and 2-butene at 350°C, the maximum conversion to propylene is 63%. Higher conversions require recycling unreacted butenes after fractionation. This reaction was first used to produce 2-butene and ethylene from propylene (Chapter 8). The reverse reaction is used to prepare polymer-grade propylene form 2-butene and ethylene ... 

Figure 9-3. A flow diagram showing the metathesis process for producing polymer grade propylene from ethylene and 2-butene.

A potential drawback of all the routes discussed thus far is that there is little control over polydispersity and molecular weight of the resultant polymer. Ringopening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) is a living polymerization method and, in theory, affords materials with low polydispersities and predictable molecular weights. This methodology has been applied to the synthesis of polyacctylcne by Feast [23], and has recently been exploited in the synthesis of PPV. Bicyclic monomer 12 [24] and cyclophane 13 [25) afford well-defined precursor polymers which may be converted into PPV 1 by thermal elimination as described in Scheme 1-4. 

The metathesis of alkyl- or aryl-substituted cycloalkenes provides a route to certain perfectly alternating copolymers. For example, metathesis of 5-methylcyclooctene leads to a polymer that may be considered as a... 

It has been suggested that these polymers are mainly linear, which may be a consequence of intermolecular metathesis reactions with traces of acyclic alkenes, or of other consecutive reactions 19-22). 

A chloro-substituted cycloalkene, 1-chloro-l, 5-cyclooctadiene, has also been converted by metathesis into a polymer, the perfectly alternating copolymer of butadiene and chloroprene (29). 

Although olefin metathesis had soon after its discovery attracted considerable interest in industrial chemistry, polymer chemistry and, due to the fact that transition metal carbene species are involved, organometallic chemistry, the reaction was hardly used in organic synthesis for many years. This situation changed when the first structurally defined and stable carbene complexes with high activity in olefin metathesis reactions were described in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A selection of precatalysts discovered in this period and representative applications are summarized in Table 1. 

We will focus on the development of ruthenium-based metathesis precatalysts with enhanced activity and applications to the metathesis of alkenes with nonstandard electronic properties. In the class of molybdenum complexes [7a,g,h] recent research was mainly directed to the development of homochi-ral precatalysts for enantioselective olefin metathesis. This aspect has recently been covered by Schrock and Hoveyda in a short review and will not be discussed here [8h]. In addition, several important special topics have recently been addressed by excellent reviews, e.g., the synthesis of medium-sized rings by RCM [8a], applications of olefin metathesis to carbohydrate chemistry [8b], cross metathesis [8c,d],enyne metathesis [8e,f], ring-rearrangement metathesis [8g], enantioselective metathesis [8h], and applications of metathesis in polymer chemistry (ADMET,ROMP) [8i,j]. Application of olefin metathesis to the total synthesis of complex natural products is covered in the contribution by Mulzer et al. in this volume. 

Chemistry on solid support has gained tremendous importance during the last few years, mainly driven by the needs of the pharmaceutical sciences. Due to the robust and tolerable nature of the available catalysts, metathesis was soon recognized as a useful technique in this context. Three conceptually different, RCM-based strategies are outlined in Fig. 11. In the approach delineated in Fig. 1 la, a polymer-bound diene 353 is subjected to RCM. The desired product 354 is formed with concomitant traceless release from the resin. This strategy is very favorable, since only compounds with the correct functionality will be liberated, while unwanted by-products remain attached to the polymer. However, as the catalyst is captured in this process by the matrix (355), a higher catalyst loading will be required, or ancillary alkenes have to be added to liberate the catalyst. 

An illustrative example of an alternative strategy (cf Fig. 11c) involving the use of a novel traceless linker is found in the multistep synthesis of 6-epi-dysidiolide (363) and several dysidiolide-derived phosphatase inhibitors by Waldmann and coworkers [153], outlined in Scheme 70. During the synthesis, the growing skeleton of 363 remained attached to a robust dienic linker. After completion of intermediate 362, the terminal olefin in 363 was liberated from the solid support by the final metathesis process with concomitant formation of a polymer-bound cyclopentene 364. Notably, during the synthesis it turned out that polymer-bound intermediate 365a, in contrast to soluble benzoate 365b, produced diene 367 only in low yield. After introduction of an additional linker (cf intermediate 366), diene 367 was released in distinctly improved yield by RCM. 

Nearly all of the polymers produced by step-growth polymerization contain heteroatoms and/or aromatic rings in the backbone. One exception is polymers produced from acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization.22 Hydrocarbon polymers with carbon-carbon double bonds are readily produced using ADMET polymerization techniques. Polyesters, polycarbonates, polyamides, and polyurethanes can be produced from aliphatic monomers with appropriate functional groups (Fig. 1.1). In these aliphatic polymers, the concentration of the linking groups (ester, carbonate, amide, or urethane) in the backbone greatly influences the physical properties. 

Olefin metathesis, an expression coined by Calderon in 1967,1 has been accurately described in Ivin and Mol s seminal text Olefin Metathesis and Metathesis Polymerization as the (apparent) interchange of carbon atoms between a pair of double bonds (ref. 2, p. 1). This remarkable conversion can be divided into three types of reactions, as illustrated in Fig. 8.1. These reactions have been used extensively in the synthesis of a broad range of both macromolecules and small molecules3 this chapter focuses on acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization as a versatile route for the production of a wide range of functionalized polymers. 

ADMET polymers are easily characterized using common analysis techniques, including nuclear magnetic resonance ( H and 13C NMR), infrared (IR) spectra, elemental analysis, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), vapor pressure osmometry (VPO), membrane osmometry (MO), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The preparation of poly(l-octenylene) (10) via the metathesis of 1,9-decadiene (9) is an excellent model polymerization to study ADMET, since the monomer is readily available and the polymer is well known.21 The NMR characterization data (Fig. 8.9) for the hydrogenated versions of poly(l-octenylene) illustrate the clean and selective nature of ADMET. 

What can ADMET offer in terms of tailoring the properties of a given polymer The answer lies in the clean chemistry of metathesis. If a metathesis active a,co-diene can be synthesized, then a known polymer can be produced. Few other polymerization techniques are so versatile, yet so precise. In recent years, our group has focused attention toward modeling polymers and copolymers made from ethylene in particular, we have been examining the effect of precise placement of alkyl and polar branches sequentially along tire backbone of polyethylene. 

Monomers 24 and 25 behave differently when exposed to catalyst 14, shown in Fig. 8.15. Divinyltetramethyldisiloxane 24 is found to be metathesis inactive due to similar steric inhibitions experienced with divinyldimethylsilane. Monomer 25 is synthesized with one additional methylene spacer unit between the silicon atom and the olefin moiety, which then is reacted with Schrock s [Mo] catalyst. Here, metathesis occurs quite readily, exclusively forming a seven-membered cychc molecule (26) instead of polymer. The formation of the cyclic product can be explained by tire Tliorpe-Ingold effect.15... 

Diol-functionalized telechelic polymers have been desired for the synthesis of polyurethanes however, utilizing alcohol-functionalized a-olefins degrades both 14 and 23. Consequently, in order for alcohols to be useful in metathesis depolymerization, the functionality must be protected and the oxygen atom must not be /3 to the olefin or only cyclic species will be formed. Protection is accomplished using a/-butyldimcthylsiloxy group, and once protected, successful depolymerization to telechelics occurs readily. 

The most recent work in our group on metathesis depolymerization has focused on tlie solvent-free depolymerization of 1,4-polybutadiene.51 In our previous work using catalyst 14, a solvent is required in order to bring the catalyst and polymer into the same phase for depolymerization to take place. However, we have found that catalyst 12 can effectively depolymerize 1,4-polybutadiene with no solvent... 

---