Use of Stable Amine-Capped Polyynes in the Regioselective Synthesis of Push-Pull Thiophenes

The reactions of a series of 1-halopolyynes with secondary amines led to novel amine end-capped polyynes exhibiting surprisingly high stability toward moisture. The new compounds were characterized by NMR spectroscopy, ESI-MS spectrometry, and X-ray single-crystal diffractometry. The use of amine end-capped polyynes as precursors to substituted push-pull thiophenes was next presented. The results show the first-to the best of our knowledge-transformation of ynamine to thiophene and the first regioselective transformation of a longer polyynes to butadiyne-substituted thiophene. Photophysical studies of the resulting compounds show that some of the substituted thiophenes have high quantum yield photoluminescence upon UV light irradiation.