Ruthenium catalyzed regioselective copolymerization of acetophenone and α,ω-dienes

Summary

This paper reports a novel ruthenium catalyzed regioselective copolymerization reaction between acetophenone and α,ω-dienes such as divinyltetramethyldisiloxane and divinyldimethylsilane which leads respectively to copoly(3,3,5,5-tetramethyl-4-oxa-3,5-disila-1,7-heptanylene/2-acetyl-1,3-phenylene) and copoly(3,3-dimethyl-3-sila-1,5-pentanylene/2-acetyl-1,3-phenylene). This reaction involves the ruthenium catalyzed insertion of the carbon-carbon double bonds of α,ω-dienes into the aromatic C−H bondsortho to the acetyl group of acetophenone. Similar ruthenium catalyzed reactions between acetophenone and alkenes to yield monomericortho alkyl substituted acetophenones have been recently reported.¹