Synthesis of an optically active poly(aryleneethynylene) containing extended conjugation in the repeat unit.

A binaphthyl-based chiral poly(aryleneethynylene) (R)-9 that contains significantly longer conjugated repeat unit than the previously reported such materials has barn synthesized. GPC analysis of (R)-9 shows that its molecular weight is Mw = 38,200 and Mn = 29,000 (PDI = 1.3). The specific optical rotation of this polymer is [alpha](D) = -288.6 (c = 0.5, CH2Cl2). Although the conjugated repeat unit of (R)-9 contains a total of 54 pi electrons, this polymer is still soluble in regular organic solvents. The polymer made of racemic binaphthyl units is also prepared. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd