Inorganic Chemistry, Vol.45, No.19, 7590-7592, 2006
Coordination of fluoro ligands toward sodium ions makes the difference: Aqua sodium ions act as Bronsted acids in polymerization of vinyl ethers and styrenes
In searching for aqua sodium species acting as Bronsted acids in catalysis, we explored the phenomenon that sodium tetrakis[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]borate dihydrate (NaBAr4F center dot 2H(2)O) evidently provides one proton source to initiate the polymerization of vinyl ethers in anhydrous dichloromethane solutions. In addition, NaBAr4F catalyzed efficiently in the polymerization of activated styrenes, such as p-methoxystyrene.