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Synfacts 2007(8): 0812-0812  
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-968777
Synthesis of Materials and Unnatural Products
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Helical Polymers via Asymmetric Coordination Polymerization

Contributor(s): Timothy M. Swager, Anne J. McNeil
G. M. Miyake, W. R. Mariott, E. Y.-X. Chen*
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA
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Publication History

Publication Date:
24 July 2007 (online)

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Significance

Chen and co-workers polymerized N,N-diaryl acrylamides at room temperature using chiral, cationic zirconocene enolate complexes as catalysts. Previously, these authors synthesized poly(dimethyl acrylamide)s with >99% isotacticity using a racemic version of this catalyst (W. R. Mariott, E. Y.-X. Chen Macromolecules 2004, 37, 4741). In this communication, different catalyst enantiomers (R,R or S,S) result in poly(diaryl acrylamide)s with opposite optical rotations. The backbone helicity arises due to steric congestion between the diaryl substituents. Controlled molecular weights with narrow polydispersities implicate a living polymeri­zation mechanism.