Phosphine-Functionalized Syndiotactic Polystyrenes: Synthesis and Application to Immobilization of Transition Metal Nanoparticle Catalysts.

The precise control of monomer sequence and stereochemistry in copolymerization is of much interest and importance for the synthesis of high performance materials, but studies toward this goal have met with only limited success to date. The coordination polymerization of diphenylphosphinostyrene (p-StPPh and o-StPPh ) and its copolymerization with styrene (St) by (C Me SiMe )Sc(CH C H NMe -o) have been achieved for the first time to afford a new series of phosphine functionalized syndiotactic polystyrene. By the design of the polymer structure, the copolymer of o-StPPh and St (poly(o-StPPh -alt-St)-b-sPS) containing o-StPPh and St atactic alternating copolymer block and syndiotactic polystyrene block (sPS) showed excellent thermal stability and chemical resistance.