SYNTHESIS AND MOLTEN-STATE POLYMERIZATION OF SOME NOVEL CONJUGATED DIACETYLENES

A series of new, highly conjugated diacetylenes, 4-ethynylstilbene der ivatives, were synthesized and their polymerization was studied. None of them was found to undergo topochemical polymerization in the solid state but they readily polymerized in the molten state to give red tra nsparent and amorphous polymers. All the polymers had an absorption ma ximum in the visible spectra around 500 nm, and FT-IR data showed the enyne structure of the polymer chain resulted from 1,4-addition.