Synthesis of Conjugated Polymers with Pendant Nucleobase Groups through Yamamoto Coupling Reaction

Combining nucleobase functionalization with conjugated polymers might show great research value in material science. Herein, dibromophenyl substituted nucleobases, 3,5 dibromophenyl adenine and 3,5 dibromophenyl thymine, were firstly designed and synthesized. Yamamoto coupling reaction of these two monomers with nickel complexes as catalyst gave nucleobase functionalized conjugated polymer in moderate yields. The structures of the obtained conjugated polymers were characterized with NMR, IR, UV vis spectroscopy and MALDI TOF mass spectroscopy.