Direct and selective access to amino-poly(phenylene vinylenes)s with switchable properties by dimerizing polymerization of aminoaryl carbenes

Despite the ubiquity of singlet carbenes in chemistry, their utility as true monomeric building blocks for the synthesis of functional organic polymers has been underexplored. Here the authors show mono- and bis-acyclic amino(aryl)carbenes selectively dimerize to form diaminoalkenes and hitherto unknown amino-containing poly(p-phenylene vinylene)s.