Patent ID: 7183365

Claim:
A process for preparing fluorene polymers having perfluoroalkyl groups, the steps comprising: (A) forming a polymer having at least one monomeric unit having a Formula I or a polymer having at least one monomeric unit having a Formula I and monomeric unit having a Formula I(a): where: R is a substituent on a carbon atom in an aromatic dng, which can be the same or different at each occurrence and is selected from hydrogen, alkyl, aryl, heteroalkyl, heteroaryl, F, —CN, —OR 1 , —CO 2 R 1 , —CO 2 R 1 , —C ψ H θ F λ , —OC ψ H θ F λ , —SR 1 , —N(R 1 ) 2 , —P(R 1 ) 2 , —SOR 1 , —SO 2 R 1 , —NO 2 , and beta-dicarbonyls having Formula XII: or adjacent R groups together can form a ring selected from 5-membered cycloalkyl, 6-membered cycloalkyl, 5-membered aryl, 6-membered aryl, 5-membered heteroaryl and 6-membered heteroaryl, such that R 1 is a substituent on a heteroatom which can be the same or different at each occurrence and is selected from alkyl, aryl, heteroalkyl and heteroaryl; and ψ is an integer between 1 and 20, and θ and λ are integers satisfying Equation A1 below: θ+λ=2 ψ +1; (Equation A1); R 2 is a substituent on a carbon atom not in an aromatic ring, which can be the same or different at each occurrence and is selected from hydrogen, alkyl, aryl, heteroalkyl, heteroaryl and —C ψ H θ F λ , R 3 is hydrogen, alkyl, aryl, heteroalkyl and heteroaryl; δ is 0 or an integer from 1 to 12; and (B) treating the polymer with a perfluoroalkylating reagent selected from (i) a perfluoroalkyl iodide and (ii) a perfluoroalkylsulfonyl chlodde in the presence of a ruthenium(ll) catalyst; with the proviso that, after treating the polymer with the perfluoroalkylating reagent, the polymer contains at least one R substituent with the formula —C ψ H θ F λ .