Catalytic dehydrocoupling of thienyl/furyl-substituted carbosilanes – Synthesis and characterization of functional poly(hydrosilane)s [RMe2Si(CH2)xSiH]n, (R = 2-Th, 4-Me-2-Th, 2-Fu, 5-Me-2-Fu; x = 2 and 3)

The carbosilanes RMe2Si(CH2)xSiH3, [R = 2-Th (1a, 2a), 4-Me-2-Th (3a, 4a), 2-Fu (5a, 6a), 5-Me-2-Fu (7a, 8a); x = 2 and 3], with primary SiH3 end groups undergo a facile dehydropolymerization under ambient conditions (50 °C, 48 h) in presence of Cp2TiCl2/2.2 n-BuLi catalyst to afford the corresponding poly(hydrosilane)s 1–8 bearing carbosilyl side chains appended with thienyl/furyl groups. These have been characterized by GPC, IR, multinuclear (1H, 13C{1H}, 29Si{1H}) NMR, UV and PL spectral studies.

Graphical abstractFunctional poly(hydrosilane)s [RMe2Si(CH2)xSiH]n (R = 2-thienyl, 4-methyl-2-thienyl, 2-furyl, 5-methyl-2-furyl; x = 2 and 3) are accessible via Ti-catalyzed dehydrocoupling of appropriate carbosilane monomers.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide