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Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Photogeneration of N-Heterocyclic Carbenes: Application in Photoinduced Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization
Published on: November 29, 2018
Electropolymerization of an N-heterocyclic carbene-gold(I) complex
Adam B Powell1, Christopher W Bielawski, Alan H Cowley
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Center for Nano and Molecular Science and Technology, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, A5300, Austin, Texas 78712-0165, USA.
Abstract:
We report the first example of a polymer in which each monomer contains an N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) orthogonally connected to its main chain. A polymerizable imidazolylidene-AuCl complex containing pendant bithiophene moieties was prepared in a high-yield multistep procedure. Oxidative electropolymerization of this monomer afforded the desired polymer, (Au[NHC]Cl)(n), which was characterized via electrochemical studies as well as X-ray photoelectron and UV-vis spectroscopy.
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