Copper‐containing bimetallic complexes as efficient catalysts for aerobic oxidative coupling polymerization

The aerobic oxidative polymerization of 2,6‐difluorophenol (F2PhOH) catalyzed by copper(II) for assembling dendritic ligands was studied. Although the mono‐metallic complex of copper(II) chloride with a dendritic phenylazomethine (DPAG4) efficiently catalyzed this polymerization reaction without any additive bases, a significant increase in the molecular weight of the product polymer was observed when an iron(III) complex was added to the copper(II)–dendrimer system. The synergistic enhancement based on the copper–iron bimetallic system provided a higher molecular weight product polymer in addition to the high yield.