Overcoming the Cationic Route

Significance

Vinyl ethers are prone to cationic polymerization, thus it is not easy to achieve insertion polymerization. Furthermore insertion barriers are often too high. Jordan and coworker have conducted a systematic reactivity study of various substrates with (α-diimine)PdMe⁺, and found that trimethylsilyl or triphenylsilyl vinyl ethers can be incorporated in the insertion copolymerization with 1-hexene. The specificity of the reaction was also demonstrated by showing that the cationic or radical route cannot produce the resulting polymer.