Polymer-supported distannanes: a new and efficient synthesis of highly effective reagents for iodine atom transfer cyclisations

Polymeric distannanes were synthesised by the cross-linking of polystyrene bound tin hydride functionalities using a palladium mediated dehydrogenative coupling. The polymers were characterised by spectroscopic methods (IR and 13C, 119Sn NMR) and elemental analysis and were successfully applied to two iodine atom transfer cyclisations, performing as well as solution based hexaalkylditin reagents and significantly better than previously reported polymer-supported ditin reagents.