Multicomponent Polymerization of Diacetylarenes, Dialkynones, and NH4OAc for In situ Construction of Functional Conjugated Poly(triarylpyridine)s

Abstract

Exploration of new green polymerization strategies for the construction of conjugated polymers is important but challengeable. In this work, a multicomponent polymerization of acetylarenes, alkynones and ammonium acetate for in situ construction of conjugated poly(triarylpyridine)s was developed. The polymerization reactions of diacetylarenes, aromatic dialkynones and NH₄OAc were performed in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) under heating in the presence of potassium tert-butoxide (t-BuOK), affording four conjugated poly(2,4,6-triarylpyridine)s (PTAPs) in satisfactory yields. The resulting PTAPs have good solubility in common organic solvents and high thermal stability with 5% weight loss temperatures reaching up to 460 °C. They are also electrochemically active. The PTAPs incorporating tetraphenylethene units manifest aggregation-induced emission features. Moreover, through simply being doped into poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) matrix, the polymer and model compound containing triphenylamine moieties exhibit room-temperature phosphorescence properties with ultralong lifetimes up to 696.2 ms and high quantum yields up to 28.7%. This work not only provides a facile green synthetic route for conjugated polymers but also offers new insights into the design of advanced materials with unique photophysical properties.