Synthesis of optically active star polymers consisting of helical poly(phenylacetylene) chains by the living polymerization of phenylacetylenes and their chiroptical properties

Ayato Inaba; Tatsuya Nishimura; Masato Yamamoto; Sandip Das; Ayhan Yurtsever; Kazuki Miyata; Takeshi Fukuma; Seigo Kawaguchi; Moriya Kikuchi; Tsuyoshi Taniguchi; Katsuhiro Maeda

doi:10.1039/d3ra05971e

Synthesis of optically active star polymers consisting of helical poly(phenylacetylene) chains by the living polymerization of phenylacetylenes and their chiroptical properties

RSC Adv. 2023 Oct 23;13(44):30978-30984. doi: 10.1039/d3ra05971e. eCollection 2023 Oct 18.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University Kakuma-machi Kanazawa 920-1192 Japan nishimura@se.kanazawa-u.ac.jp maeda@se.kanazawa-u.ac.jp.
² Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University Kakuma-machi Kanazawa 920-1192 Japan.
³ Department of Organic Materials Science, Graduate School of Organic Materials Science, Yamagata University 4-3-16, Jonan Yonezawa 992-8510 Japan.
⁴ Faculty of Engineering, Yamagata University 4-3-16, Jonan Yonezawa 992-8510 Japan.

Abstract

Star polymers consisting of three helical poly(phenylacetylene) chains with a precisely controlled molecular weight (molar mass dispersity < 1.03) were successfully synthesized by the living polymerization of phenylacetylene derivatives with a Rh-based multicomponent catalyst system comprising trifunctional initiators, which have three phenylboronates centered on a benzene ring, the Rh complex [Rh(nbd)Cl]₂, diphenylacetylene, triphenylphosphine, and a base. The analysis of chiroptical properties of the optically active star polymers obtained by the living polymerization of optically active phenylacetylene derivatives revealed that the star polymers exhibited chiral amplification properties owing to their unique topology compared with the corresponding linear polymers.