The design, synthesis, characterization and application of carbene-based metallopolymers are described herein. Metallopolymers have found wide applications in the fields of photovoltaics, energy storage and electrochromic windows. The incorporation of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) functionalities into a polymerizable scaffold would allow for many different metals to be attached in a facile and high-yielding manner. Such complexes could be functionalized onto surfaces and utilized as either spectroscopic or antimicrobial devices. Early attempts in our lab focused on utilizing bis(thiophene) diimines (instead of NHCs) as scaffolds for metal chelation and polymerization. This approach was unsuccessful due to the lability of the diimine moiety under electrochemical cycling and the thiophene moieties were not able to undergo polymerization. In order to more fully understand the key transformation in synthesizing the thiophene-substituted diimines, a comprehensive investigation of the aldimine coupling transformation was undertaken. A high concentration of substrate and catalyst was determined to be the most important factor in obtaining high yields of the dimerized products. Green solvents such as acetonitrile and hexanes could be used for the dimerization reaction when the cyanide counteranion was changed from sodium to tetrabutylammonium. The steric limitations were systematically identified and a series of possible substrates have been ruled out as viable candidates for dimerization. Applying the experience gleaned from earlier reports, the first example of an NHC polymer was prepared in which the monomer features an NHC functional group orthogonally connected to its main chain. A polymerizable imidazolylidene-AuCl complex containing pendant bithiophene moieties was prepared by a high yielding, multistep procedure. Oxidative electropolymerization of this monomer afforded the desired polymer (Au[NHC]Cl)n, which was characterized on the basis of electrochemical studies as well as by X-ray crystallography, photoelectron and UV-vis spectroscopy. The methodology described above was expanded to develop a series of analogous poly(N-heterocyclic carbene) complexes with appended entities (M = Ir, Au, Ag, or S)and found to be electrochromic. Most of the polymers exhibit an intense absorbance wave at 700 nm under oxidative conditions which is attributable to the formation of polaron excitations along the polymer main chain. The presence of a transition metal significantly increased the electrochromic character of the polycarbene system. The iridium-containing polymer was found to possess significant near-infrared (NIR) absorbance at 1100 nm in which the metal moiety effectively functions as an electron sink. Electrochemical analysis of the polymer thin films revealed that they exhibit highly reversible electrochromic activities. / text

Cyanide-catalyzed aldimine coupling was employed to synthesize compounds with 1,2-ene-diamine and α-imine-amine structural motifs: 1,2,N,N'- tetraphenyletheylene-1,2-diamine (13) and (+/-)-2,3-di-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-1,2- dihydroquinoxaline (17), respectively. Single crystal X-ray diffraction provided solidstate structures and density functional theory calculations were used to probe isomeric preferences within this and the related hydroxy-ketone/ene-diol system. The enediamine and imine-amine core structures were calculated to be essentially identical in energy. However, additional effects-such as π conjugation-in 13 render an enediamine structure that is slightly more stable than the imine-amine tautomer (14). In contrast, the intramolecular hydrogen bonding present in 17 significantly favors the imine-amine isomer over the ene-diamine tautomer (18). Aldimine coupling (AIC) is the nitrogen analogue of the benzoin condensation and has been applied to dialdimines, providing the first examples of cyclizations effected by cyanide-catalyzed AIC. Sodium cyanide promoted the facile, intramolecular cyclization of several dialdimines in N,N-dimethylformamide, methanol, or dichloromethane/water (phase-transfer conditions) yielding a variety of six-membered heterocycles. Under aerobic conditions, an oxidative cyclization occurs to provide the diimine heterocycle. Cyanide-catalyzed aldimine coupling was employed as a new synthetic method for oligomerization. Nine rigidly spaced dialdimines were oxidatively coupled under aerobic conditions to yield conjugated oligoketimines and polyketimines with unprecedented structure and molecular weight (DP = 2 - 23, ~700 -8200 g/mol). The α- diimine linkage was established based on IR spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, size exclusion chromatography, and X-ray crystallographic characterization of the model oxidized dimer of N-benzylidene-(p-phenoxy)-aniline. Cyclic voltammetry indicates ptype electrical conductivity, suggesting they are promising candidates for plastic electronic devices. The cyanide-catalyzed benzoin condensation reaction of 4-substituted benzaldehydes followed by oxidation to the diketone, and the Schiff Base condensation of two equivalents of o-aminophenol provides 2,3-(4-X-phenyl)2-1,4-(2- hydroxyphenyl)2-1,4-diazabutadiene. The ligand is given the moniker X-dabphol. These ligands are readily metallated to form M-X-dabphol complexes. The copper complexes catalytically fix CO2 with propylene oxide to yield propylene carbonate. DFT studies along with a comparison with Hammet parameters help validate and elaborate on the catalytic cycle and the catalytic results obtained. The nickel complex is competent for olefin epoxidation. Synthesis, characterization, X-ray structure, DFT analysis, and catalytic activity of the parent nickel dabphol complex are reported.