
Benjamin Ross Boswell
Ph.D. Student in Chemistry, admitted Summer 2016
All Publications
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Mechanochemical synthesis of an elusive fluorinated polyacetylene.
Nature chemistry
2020
Abstract
Polymer mechanochemistry has traditionally been employed to study the effects of mechanical force on chemical bonds within a polymer backbone or to generate force-responsive materials. It is under-exploited for the scalable synthesis of wholly new materials by chemically transforming the polymers, especially products inaccessible by other means. Here we utilize polymer mechanochemistry to synthesize a fluorinated polyacetylene, a long-sought-after air-stable polyacetylene that has eluded synthesis by conventional means. We construct the monomer in four chemical steps on gram scale, which involves a rapid incorporation of fluorine atoms in an exotic photochemical cascade whose mechanism and exquisite stereoselectivity were informed by computation. After polymerization, force activation by ultrasonication produces a gold-coloured, semiconducting fluoropolymer. This work demonstrates that polymer mechanochemistry is a valuable synthetic tool for accessing materials on a preparative scale.
View details for DOI 10.1038/s41557-020-00608-8
View details for PubMedID 33349696
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Multireference computations elucidate the mechanism of a photochemical cascade reaction towards fluoropolyacetylene
AMER CHEMICAL SOC. 2019
View details for Web of Science ID 000478860505122
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Xenon Difluoride Mediated Fluorodecarboxylations for the Syntheses of Di- and Trifluoromethoxyarenes
ORGANIC LETTERS
2016; 18 (18): 4570–73
Abstract
XeF2 is demonstrated to be a more proficient fluorine-transfer reagent than either NFSI or Selectfluor in fluorodecarboxylations of both mono- and difluoroaryloxy acetic acid derivatives. This method efficiently converts a wide range of neutral and electron-poor substrates to afford the desired di- and trifluoromethyl aryl ethers in good to excellent yields. The purifications are facile, and the reaction times are less than 5 min, which makes these fluorodecarboxylations promising for future PET-imaging applications.
View details for DOI 10.1021/acs.orglett.6b02208
View details for Web of Science ID 000383640600032
View details for PubMedID 27560791