Macromolecules 2009, 42, 9199–9203
9199
DOI: 10.1021/ma9018608
Polyferrocenyldisiloxane from the Platinum-Catalyzed Reactions of Tertiary Bis(dimethylsilyl)ferrocene in a Polar Aprotic Solvent Damion Miles, Jon Ward, and Daniel A. Foucher* Department of Chemistry and Biology, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5B 2K3 Received August 20, 2009; Revised Manuscript Received September 29, 2009
The development of high yield routes to polymers containing inorganic elements in the main chain continues to represent an important synthetic challenge. In the past 15 years, one of the most successful strategies toward this goal has been the ringopening polymerization (ROP) of thermally or photochemically labile monomers.1,2 The majority of these chain-growth inorganic polymers, such as polyferrocenylsilanes (1), are isolated in good yield with narrow polydispersities and high molecular weights (>1 106 Da). By contrast, only low to moderate molecular weight inorganic polymers have been prepared by step-growth polymerization methods. A variety of different condensation and coupling routes yielding low and moderate molecular weight polymetallocenes bearing a repeat unit of ferrocene and optionally a bridging group have been reported. These include the metal-mediated Ullmann coupling of dihaloferrocenes leading to low molecular weight (
