Catalytically Active N-Heterocyclic Carbene Release from Single-Chain Nanoparticles Following a Thermolysis-Driven Unfolding Strategy.

The need for efficient, tailor-made catalysts has inspired chemists to design synthetic macromolecular architectures for selective catalysis. To this purpose, herein the synthesis and in-depth characterization of Ag(I)-crosslinked single-chain nanoparticles (SCNPs) is reported and their application as catalysts is demonstrated. Specifically, a copolymer of styrenic benzimidazolium chloride is synthesized as a linear precursor via reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer polymerization. Metalation of the benzimidazolium moieties by Ag(I) resulted in the intramolecular cross-linking of single chains via the formation of silver-N-heterocyclic carbene (Ag-NHC) linkages under dilute conditions. The successful formation of well-defined, robust SCNPs is evidenced by size-exclusion chromatography, dynamic light scattering, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Finally, it is demonstrated that the Ag-SCNPs can be used as NHC pre-catalysts, by first indirectly evidencing the formation of the corresponding unfolded NHC-CS2 polybetaine and then organocatalysing a benzoin condensation reaction.