FUNCTIONAL TELECHELIC POLYMER SYNTHESIS VIA ADMET POLYMERIZATION

ABSTRACT

Acyclic Diene METathesis (ADMET) polymerization of 1,9-decadiene with epoxy-containing monoolefins using ruthenium based Grubbs' catalyst gave epoxy terminated telechelic polymers. The number of methylene spacers between the olefin and the epoxy from the oxygen side of the epoxy-containing monoolefins was varied from one to three. The optimal condition for the present ADMET polymerization was determined as monomer/catalyst ratio of 200/1 for 96 hr at 90°C. All polymer structures were characterized by FT-IR and ¹H NMR spectroscopy. It is quite interesting that even 1,2-epoxy-4-pentene with one methylene spacer metathesizes successfully using ruthenium catalyst despite this monoolefin suffers a stronger negative neighboring group effect than the other monoolefins. The telechelic polymer was reacted with toluene diisocyanate to give a higher molecular weight segmented copolymer connected with oxazolidone linkage.

Keywords:

• Metathesis
• ADMET polymerization
• Grubbs catalyst
• Telechelic polymer
• Epoxy

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We acknowledge to Dr. K. B. Wagener for his helpful discussions and suggestions. A part of this research was financially supported by the Kansai University Special Research Fund, 1999.