The Controlled Homogeneous Organic Solution Polymerization of New Hydrophilic Cationic exo-7-oxa-Norbornenes via ROMP with RuCl2(PCY3)2CHPh in a Novel 2,2,2-Trifluoroethanol/Methylene Chloride Solvent Mixture

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2007

Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry

School

Mathematics and Natural Sciences

Abstract

The authors detail herein the synthesis and controlled polymerization of a series of new permanently cationic ammonium exo-7-oxanorbornene derivatives via ROMP, with the first generation Grubbs' catalyst RuCl2(PCy3)(2)CHPh, in a novel solvent mixture composed of 1:1 vol/vol 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE)/methylene chloride. It is demonstrated that this cosolvent mixture is a convenient reaction medium facilitating the polymerization of hydrophilic substrates by hydrophobic initiators under homogeneous conditions. Homopolymerizations and copolymerizations proceed yielding materials with controlled molecular masses, and narrow molecular mass distributions. It is also demonstrated that this protocol is not limited to the use of TFE as a cosolvent and that additional halogenated alcohols, such as 2,2,2-trichloroethanol and 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropanol are also effective cosolvents for the controlled polymerization of such cationic substrates. Finally, it is demonstrated that the TFE/methylene chloride mixture has no apparent detrimental effect on Grubbs' catalyst. (C) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Publication Title

Journal of Polymer Science Part A Polymer Chemistry

Volume

45

Issue

11

First Page

2113

Last Page

2128

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