Synthesis of Poly(silyl ethers) via Iridium-Catalyzed Dehydrocoupling Polymerization

Poly­(silyl ethers) (PSEs) are promising degradable materials, and the development of an efficient method to produce them from readily available materials is highly desirable. Herein, we present a dehydrocoupling polymerization of AB-type silyl alcohol monomers catalyzed by homogeneous iridium­(I) complexes bearing a bisphosphine ligand. A series of PSEs containing aliphatic or aromatic linkers have been synthesized. The PDI of PSEs could be tuned by varying the ligand of iridium/bisphosphine complexes. Moderate to high yields of polymers with number-average molecular weights (M_n) up to 9.27 × 10⁴ were obtained. The PSEs possess good thermal stability and low glass-transition temperature (T_g = −42 to −83 °C).