Novel Synthesis of Linear Polyimides by Palladium-Catalyzed Carbonylation Polycondensation of Aromatic Diamides, Aromatic Dibromides, and Carbon Monoxide

Palladium-catalyzed benzylation of heterocyclic aromatic compounds.

Broadly applicable palladium-catalyzed heteroarene benzylation reactions are described with a focus on the most challenging heterocyclic classes under traditional benzylation techniques such as sulfur-containing heterocycles and those bearing functional groups that would be incompatible with reactions requiring Lewis acids and/or strong bases.

[C]Carbon Monoxide in Rhodium-/Palladium-Mediated Carbonylation Reactions

Rhodium(III)-catalyzed oxidative carbonylation of benzamides with carbon monoxide.

An efficient strategy for the oxidative carbonylation of aromatic amides via C-H/N-H activation to form phthalimides using an Rh(III) catalyst has been developed. The reaction shows a preference for C-H bonds of electron-rich aromatic amides and tolerates a variety of functional groups.

Simulated crystalline structures of aromatic polyimides.

Principles of sequence-recognition in aromatic polyimides.

Pyrene-based molecular tweezers show sequence-specific binding to aromatic polyimides through sterically-controlled donor-acceptor pi-stacking and hydrogen bonding; (1)H NMR spectra of tweezer-complexes with polyimides having different sequence-restrictions show conclusively that the detection of long range sequence-information results from multiple tweezer-binding at adjacent imide residues.