A partially serendipitous discovery of thermo-switchable ruthenium olefin metathesis initiator that seem to be well suited for ROMP of monomers bearing vinyl pendant groups

A latent Ru olefin metathesis catalyst bearing a chelating ligand with an azoxybenzene fragment was obtained and characterized. The complex was inactive in the ring closing metathesis (RCM) reaction of a standard test diene: diethyl diallylmalonate at room temperature but can be subsequently activated by elevated temperature (up to 100 degrees C). The lack of activity of this azoxy catalyst in RCM of dienes containing terminal C-C double bonds at room temperature and high activity in ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of bicyclo [2.2.1] hept-2-ene (norbornene, NBE) permitted the ROMP of the challenging monomer: 5-vinyl-2-norbornene yielding soluble polymers with cyclopentenylenevinylene chains with vinyl pendant groups. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.