Amino-acid containing metallomonomers copolymerized into porous organic polymers: applicability to allylic alkylation catalysis

This paper reports the synthesis of a polymerizable dppe-derivative with eight pendent styrenyl units linked to the dppe core through four tyrosine residues. This diphosphine ligand was utilized in the synthesis of a series of P2PdX2 complexes (X2=(R)-BINOL, (S)-BINOL, Cl2 and π-1,3-Ph2-allyl+). The compounds were used as comonomers for the synthesis of porous organic polymers (poly EDMA). Molecular imprinting effects on X2-ligand removal were investigated. Overall, the presence of a cavity of significant size was found to be beneficial to the rate of the allylic alkylation reaction, however, chiral BINOL shaped cavities did not influence the enantio-selectivity of the reaction.