Synthesis of high molecular weight polymers using ROMP

POLY 116

Michel Wathier, mwathier@bu.edu, Chemistry Department, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Av, Boston, MA 02215, Stephanie S. Stoddart, Biomedical Engineering Department, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Av, Boston, MA 02215, and Mark W. Grinstaff, mgrin@bu.edu, Department of Chemistry, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215.
Ring-opening-metathesis polymerization (ROMP) using Grubbs' catalysts is an easy and reliable approach to polymerization of well-defined polymers with low PDIs. Typical polymerization reactions with Grubbs' catalysts yield low Mw (usually less than 500,000 g/mol) polymers which limits their potential applications. Herein, we report the synthesis of high molecule weight polymers, poly(ethyl-5-norbornane-2-carboxylate) and poly(methyl-5-oxanorbornane-2-carboxylate). For the norbornane polymer, good correlation between predicted and measured Mw was found up to 1x107 g/mol. For the oxa-norbornene, up to 5x105 g/mol, good correlation was found. However, this yield decreases dramatically when the predicted Mw becomes greater than 5x105 g/mol. Synthesizing high Mw polymers using the Grubbs' catalyst can be challenging. Indeed, small changes in the structure of the monomer (i.e. oxa-norbornane vs. norbornane) can lead to drastic change in polymerization outcomes. Studies are ongoing to understand these reaction dependencies as well as different polymerization strategies are being explored to afford large Mw polymers.

 

General Papers: Functional Materials
6:00 PM-8:00 PM, Sunday, August 19, 2007 BCEC -- Exhibit Hall - B2, Poster

Division of Polymer Chemistry

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007