Hydrosilylation for the synthesis of sequence‐controlled periodic copolymers

Abstract

AbstractTransition metal‐catalyzed addition of bis‐silyl hydride to bis‐alkyne is widely used for the synthesis of alt‐silylene‐divinyl‐linker copolymer. When the linker for connecting two silyl hydrides is different from that for two alkyne motifs, hydrosilylation reaction will give the corresponding AB‐type copolymer. The reactivity of alkynes can be manipulated by using different protective groups. This kind of strategy would enable us to assemble a range of linkers in regioregular manner or sequence‐controlled tactic. In this account, we summarize our synthetic endeavors on the use of rhodium‐catalyzed hydrosilylation reaction to incorporate different kinds and/or numbers of chromophores arranged regioselectively on the polymeric backbone. The photophysical properties such as those arising from the ground state interactions, fluorescence resonance energy transfer, photoinduced electron transfer, light‐harvesting, or a combination thereof have been systematically examined. These data may offer useful clues on the folding behavior of these silicon‐containing polymers.