Facile synthesis of bidimensional ferrocenyl-based branched oligomers by palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions

New ferrocenyl-based star-shaped complexes have been obtained by palladium-catalyzed reactions. The synthetic method reported shows an advantage over the traditional Wittig reaction for the synthesis of olefinated compounds, both in yields and in selectivity towards the all-E isomers. The electrochemistry of the compounds has been studied. The crystal structure of E-ferrocenyl-4-(vinylphenyl)vinylene, one of the starting complexes to the star-shaped compounds, has been determined by means of single crystal X-ray diffraction.