Development of a Universal Chain-Growth Polymerization Protocol of Conjugated Polymers: Toward a Variety of All-Conjugated Block-Copolymers

This manuscript reports a universal chain-growth polymerization protocol for conjugated polymers. Herein, the Pd-based catalyst moiety dissociates from the growing active center into the solution and therefore, the controlled chain-growth character is not relying on any specific, system-related complexation, as is the case in polymerization methods reported before. This makes the protocol applicable on a broad range of monomers and, furthermore, also allows an easy one-pot synthesis of block-copolymers by successive monomer addition. A chain-growth polymerization mechanism for poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (PF) and all-conjugated block-copolymers of them is presented. Moreover, the sequence of monomer addition in the synthesis of these conjugated block-copolymers is unimportant, which is unique. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 49: 5339-5349, 2011