Journal of the American Chemical Society
Article
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
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We designed a model system of living polymerization of
phenylacetylene (14a) with a multicomponent catalytic system
composed of [Rh(nbd)Cl]2, 4-methylphenylboronic acid
(10a), diphenylacetylene (11), a 50% (w/v) aqueous solution
of KOH (12), and PPh3 (13) (14a/[Rh] = 50/1, [Rh]/10a/
11/12/13 = 1/1.5/3/2.5/3) to test terminal end functional-
ization using α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds.11 To the
polymerization mixture was directly added 4 equiv of ethyl
acrylate (15a) to the rhodium catalyst after the living
polymerization had been conducted for 1 h at 30 °C in
THF, and the resultant mixture was further stirred for 24 h at
30 °C. A 50-mer polymer having a narrow molecular weight
distribution (Mw/Mn = 1.04) was quantitatively obtained as a
methanol-insoluble part (entry 1 in Table 1).
1
The H NMR spectrum of the obtained polymer showed
sharp signals based on poly(phenylacetylene), indicating that
high cis stereoregularity (>95%) is kept even after the
termination reaction for 24 h (Figure 2).1a,3b,4a Moreover,
Figure 3. High-resolution APCI-TOF-MS spectrum of 16a (Mn =
2900, Mw/Mn = 1.03) (a), the expanded spectrum of 16a (n = 25)
(b), and the calculated spectrum of 16a (n = 25) (c).
based on the polymer was detected up to m/z 4000 in the
HRMS spectrum, and each peak has a difference of m/z 102
corresponding to a phenylacetylene repeating unit. For
instance, a peak at m/z 3098.4396 corresponds to
C
240H185O2 [M + H]+ (calcd 3098.4369), which can be
+
assigned as a structure composed of 25-mer poly-
(phenylacetylene) (n = 25, C200H150), one 4-methylphenyl
group (C7H7), two diphenylacetylene units (C14H10 × 2), and
a terminal ethyl acrylate moiety (C5H7O2) (Figure 3b,c).
Molecular ions based on a polymer having a hydrogen atom
instead of an ethyl acrylate moiety were not detected in the
spectrum, strongly supporting full introduction of ethyl
acrylate to the terminal end of the polymer. We tried to
reduce the amount of ethyl acrylate (15a) used to 2 equiv to
Figure 2. 1H NMR spectrum of 16a (entry 1 in Table 1) in CDCl3 at
room temperature.
1
the rhodium catalyst, but H NMR analysis of the obtained
polymer indicated incomplete introduction (83% chain end
functionalization) of 15a to the polymer terminal end in 24 h.
This termination reaction using 15a was hardly affected by the
degree of polymerization of the polymer (entry 2 in Table 1).
Next, we focused on terminal end functionalization of
poly(phenylacetylene)s using various terminators under the
same living polymerization conditions. Typically, the intro-
duction rate of terminators was estimated from integral values
clear signals assignable to an ethyl ester were observed at 1.13
and 4.05 ppm, for which the integration values were 3H and
2H, respectively, in comparison with 3H of a methyl group of a
4-methylphenyl group at the initiating end of the polymer.
This means that 15a was quantitatively introduced to the
terminal end of the polymer. On the other hand, signals of
methylene groups were absent, suggesting that the polymer
16a having an α,β-unsaturated ester was produced by β-
hydride elimination of a rhodium species in situ (Mizoroki−
Heck type reaction). This structure was confirmed by APCI-
TOF-MS of 16a having a low molecular weight (Mn = 2900,
Mw/Mn = 1.03), which was synthesized by living polymer-
ization at a low feed ratio of the monomer to the initiator
(14a/[Rh] = 25/1). As shown in Figure 3a, a series of peaks
1
of characteristic signals in H NMR spectra of the isolated
polymers. tert-Butyl, 2-trimethylsilylethyl, and 2,2,2-trichlor-
oethyl acrylates (15b−d) were quantitatively introduced to the
terminal end of the polymer as in the case of ethyl acrylate
(15a) (entries 3−5 in Table 1), and they are beneficial for
further functionalization of the polymer because different
conditions can be used in hydrolysis depending on the
situation. Characteristic functional groups such as epoxide and
3607
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 3604−3612