Syntheses and X-ray crystal structures of poly(pyridylsulfanylmethyl)arenes: new multi-armed molecules

The synthesis of a series of seven new poly(pyridylsulfanylmethyl)arenes is reported. These are readily prepared from either 2- or 4-mercaptopyridine and a poly(bromomethyl)arene in the presence of triethylamine. Compounds with three, four, six and eight pyridylsulfanylmethyl arms are reported. These have been fully characterised and, in four cases, the relative orientations of the pyridylsulfanylmethyl arms have been ascertained by X-ray structural analysis.