PREPARATION OF ISOCYANO POLYMER SUPPORTS AND THEIR COMPLEXES WITH CATALYTICALLY RELEVANT TRANSITION-METAL CENTERS

Suspension or mass polymerization of vinyl comonomers with 3-formamidopropyl acrylate affords widely solvent compatible, medium crosslinked polymers, which can be transformed into isocyano-containing resins. These materials (0.2–1.3 meq of isocyano functionality per g resin), exhibit a strong coordinating ability towards a variety of metal centers including catalytically relevant metal complexes. The combination of IR spectroscopy and other analytical data makes it possible to reliably speculate on the actual composition and structure of the respective polymer-supported complexes. X-ray microprobe analysis shows that the metal distribution is homogeneous throughout the polymeric beads. Thermal analyses reveal that both resins and polymer-supported complexes are thermally stable up to 300 °C. Severe leaching tests (dichloroethane or toluene at 100 °C) show that the polymer-metal complexes are characterized by high formation constants. Under certain conditions, the involvement of one polymer-bound-NC group per metal atom is achieved, so that the anchoring of catalytically active species to the support produces only a slight modification of the coordination sphere of the metal centers.