Identifying a Ketoketene Intermediate in LCP Synthesis Using Ortho-substituted Dimer

This research is a follow-up on the publication "Model Experiments Implicate a Ketoketene Intermediate in LCP Synthesis" by Jeffrey M. Robertson, et al. Instead of using the para-substituted monomers, we proposed the same mechanism should hold true for ortho-substituted monomers. Creating the ortho/ortho dimer proved to be much more difficult than expected, but after some failed trials we found that a procedure published by James Brewster is a simple, effective way to create this dimer. Further research is necessary to "trap" the intended intermediate