Alkene metathesis ring-opening polymerization

E2S.il (a) Ring opening alkene metathesis polymerization. ROMP can result in reduced steric strain, thereby providing a thermodynamic driving force for the reaction. 

Metathesis of acyclic olefins is thermoneutral, i.e., the enthalpy of the reaction is approximately equal to zero because double bonds are broken and reformed in the reaction. Therefore, alkene metathesis leads to an equilibrium which is determined by the entropy of the reaction. Metathesis of cyclic olefins proceeds differently it leads to the polymerization of cyclic olefins owing to ring opening (however, such polymerization does not occur for cyclohexene) see equation (13.163). Although the number and type... 

When a mixture of alkenes 1 and 2 or an unsymmetrically substituted alkene 3 is treated with an appropriate transition-metal catalyst, a mixture of products (including fi/Z-isomers) from apparent interchange of alkylidene moieties is obtained by a process called alkene metathesis. With the development of new catalysts in recent years, alkene metathesis has become a useful synthetic method. Special synthetic applications are, for example, ring-closing metathesis (RCM) and ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROM) (see below). 

RING-OPENING METATHESIS POLYMERIZATION OF CYCLIC ALKENES... 

I. Alkenes. 2. Ring-opening polymerization. 3. Metathesis (Chemistry)... 

Since one of the substrates is a cyclic alkene there is now the possibility of ring-opening metathesis polymerisation (ROMP) occurring which would result in the formation of polymeric products 34 (n >1). Since polymer synthesis is outside the scope of this review, only alkene cross-metathesis reactions resulting in the formation of monomeric cross-coupled products (for example 30) will be discussed here. 

Optimal yields were obtained by slow addition of the alkene substrates to a solution of the ruthenium vinylalkylidene and this allowed just two equivalents of the acyclic alkene to be used without significant formation of polymeric products. Unlike the acyclic cross-metathesis reactions, which generally favour the formation of tram products, the above ring-opening metathesis reactions yielded products in which the cis stereoisomer is predominant. Particularly noteworthy was the absence of significant amounts of products of type 31, formed from metathesis of one cyclic and two acyclic alkenes. In fact, considering the number of possible ring-opened products that could have been formed, these reactions showed remarkable selectivity (GC yields > 80%). 

Olefin metathesis (olefin disproportionation) is the reaction of two alkenes in which the redistribution of the olelinic bonds takes place with the aid of transition metal catalysts (Scheme 7.7). The reaction proceeds with an intermediate formation of a metallacyclobutene. This may either break down to provide two new olefins, or open up to generate a metal alkylidene species which -by multiple alkene insertion- may lead to formation of alkylidenes with a polymeric moiety [21]. Ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) is the reaction of cyclic olefins in which backbone-unsaturated polymers are obtained. The driving force of this process is obviously in the relief of the ring strain of the monomers. 

The ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of cyclic alkenes yields polymers that still contain all double bonds [Eq. (13)]. 

Mechanistic studies of the rearrangement activity of the ring-opening metathesis polymerization catalyst [Ru(H20)6]2+ were reported for unfunctionalized alkenes (112). The mechanism was found to be intermolecular, the alkene isomerization proceeding through an addition-elimination mechanism with a metal hydride catalytic species. This interpretation was... 

SCHEME 1. Types of alkene and alkyne metathesis reactions. DBC, double bond cleavage TBC, triple bond cleavage ADMET, acyclic diene metathesis RCM ring-closing metathesis ROMP ring-opening metathesis polymerization... 

Rhenium complex (37) has been used in the ring-opening metathesis polymerization of strained alkenes such as norbornene.37 The alkenes of the polymer backbone are predominantly Z, the polymer exhibiting high molecular weight and poly-dispersity. 

Alkene metathesis, a remarkable reaction catalyzed by transition metal catalysts, can be traced back to Ziegler-Natta chemistry as its origin [11], In 1964, Natta et al. reported a new type polymerization of cyclopentene using Mo- or W-based catalyst, without knowing the mechanism. This was the first example of ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP eq. 1.9) [12],... 

R and R refer to organic groups that contain some number of carbon atoms and may or may not be different from each other. With cyclic alkenes, metathesis leads to polymerization (specifically, ring-opening metathesis polymerization [ROMP]), shown here for cyclopentene ... 

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