This perspective summarizes the chemistry of boroxines and outlines progress towards incorporating these ring structures into functional materials and macromolecular architectures. Special attention is paid to the dynamic covalent chemistry of boroxine ring construction and how these processes lead to novel molecular architectures and functional materials. Also highlighted in this perspective is the rich chemistry surrounding boroxine-ligand interactions and how these interactions flavor many areas of boroxine chemistry.

No abstract

Rosin polymer–grafted lignin composites were prepared via “grafting from” atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) with the aid of 2‐bromoisobutyryl ester‐modified lignin as macroinitiators. Three different monomers derived from dehydroabietic acid (DA) were used for execution of grafting from ATRP, while DA was separately attached onto lignin by a simple esterification reaction. Kinetic studies indicated controlled and “living” characteristics of all monomer polymerizations. Thermal studies indicated that rosin polymer–grafted lignin composites exhibited glass transition temperatures in a broad temperature range from ∼20 to 100°C. The grafting of both DA and rosin polymers significantly enhanced hydrophobicity of lignin. Static contact angle measurement of water droplets showed ∼90° for all these rosin modified lignin composites. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrated that the surface of rosin–lignin composites was dominated with chemical compositions originating from the hydrocarbon rich rosin moiety. The impartation of hydrophobicity of rosin into lignin provided excellent water resistance of this class of renewable polymers, as all rosin‐modified lignin composites showed water uptake below 1.0 wt %. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011

Density functional theory (B3LYP//6-311+G) calculations including Poisson-Boltzmann implicit solvent and NMR were used to study the formation of a series of para-substituted triphenylboroxine.amine adducts with respect to their phenylboronic acid monomers and free amine in solution. Our calculations suggest that the intermediate prior to forming trimer.amine is a dimer.amine adduct. Formation of dimer.amine can proceed via two pathways. Electron-donating substituents favor dimerization of two monomers before addition of the amine, and electron-withdrawing substituents favor formation of a monomer.amine adduct before addition of the second monomer. We also find that pi-electron acceptors destabilize formation of the dimer and trimer with respect to its monomers. Electron-withdrawing substituents favor adduct formation. Adduct formation is enthalpically stabilized by increasing the polarity of the solvent but differential solubility of the monomer compared to trimer.amine also has an effect on the equilibrium constant.

The electron-transfer (ET) dynamics of a series of unusually rigid pi-stacked porphyrin-quinone (P-Q) systems, in which sub-van der Waals interplanar distances separate juxtaposed porphyryl, aromatic bridge, and quinonyl components of these assemblies, are reported. The photoinduced charge separation (CS) and thermal charge recombination (CR) ET reactions of [5-[8'-(2'',5''-benzoquinonyl)-1'-naphthyl]-10,20-diphenylporphinato]zinc(II) (1a-Zn), [5-[8'-(4''-[8'"-(2'"',5'"'-benzoquinonyl)-1'"-naphthyl]-1''-phenyl)-1'-naphthyl]-10,20-diphenylporphinato]zinc(II) (2a-Zn), and [5-(8'-[4''-(8'"-[4'"'-(8'""-[2'""',5'""'-benzoquinonyl]-1'""-naphthyl)-1'"'-phenyl]-1'"-naphthyl)-1''-phenyl]-1'-naphthyl)-10,20-diphenylporphinato]zinc(II) (3a-Zn) in CH(2)Cl(2) were investigated by pump-probe transient absorption spectroscopy. Analyses of these data show that the phenomenological ET distance dependence (beta) for both the CS and CR reactions in these systems is soft (beta(CS) = 0.43 A(-1); beta(CR) = 0.35 +/- 0.16 A(-1)). This work demonstrates that simple aromatic building blocks such as benzene, which are characterized by highly stabilized filled molecular orbitals and large HOMO-LUMO gaps, can provide substantial D-A electronic coupling when organized within a pi-stacked structural motif that features a modest degree of arene-arene interplanar compression.