There is an ongoing need for new transition metal mediated reactions that yield advanced macromolecular structures with enhanced properties and performance. Here, we report a novel polymerization methodology involving the direct activation of unsaturated substrates using homogenous gold catalysis (HGC). These polymerizations, performed through the reaction of an unsaturated substrate with a dialkyne, result in polymers with novel architectures and molecular connectivities. Optimization of catalyst, ligand, solvent, and various reaction parameters provides polymerizations that afford high molecular weight products containing 1,1-alkenyl linkages under facile reaction conditions. Additionally, the functional tolerance of HGC affords the integration of diverse functionalities into the polymer backbone and provides a rapid increase in molecular complexity. Thus, through the exploration of a series of unsaturated substrates with varying steric bulk, electron density, and substitution patterns, we have demonstrated a new synthetically useful transformation to access unprecedented molecular architectures from unsaturated substrates.

Gold catalyzed polymerization reactions of unsaturated substrates

2019 Spring National Meeting

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