Additive-Free Synthesis of Poly(phenylene oxide): Aerobic Oxidative Polymerization in a Base-Condensed Dendrimer Capsule

摘要

We could build a well-defined molecular nanoreactor based on a dendrimer structure. The copper complexes and base units are packed in the dendrimer with a core-shell configuration. It is important that the hybrid structure should be designed with a rigid architecture so as not to deactivate the catalytic center. Due to the rigid π-conjugating structure of the phenylazomethine dendrimer, the metal center can retain its fine conformation. The additive-free aerobic oxidation using the dendrimer catalysts drastically decreased the total waste required to produce the PPO derivatives. Finally, the total mass of additives to obtain 1 g of polymer using the dendrimer catalyst could be decreased to 1/100 because it does not need any bases.