Our collaborative work with the Zheng group at School of Integrated Circuits on chain-growth synthesis of extensively cross-conjugated polyene appears on Nature Synthesis. Congratulations to Zi-Yuan, Yi-Ze, Luo and Jia-Yu!
In this work, we have disclosed a Cu-mediated chain-growth polymerization of strained [3]cumulene towards dendralene skeletons, which was previously obtained by stepwise coupling vinylic building blocks. Our strategy rapidly generates cross-conjugated polyenes containing up to ~80–100 consecutive vinylene units on average with well-defined end groups. These π-electron-rich molecules adopt helical conformations, which induce two-photon absorption without compromising visible transparency. Their application in visible-range two-photon lithography with subdiffraction-limit resolution is demonstrated.
