Norbornadiene End-Capping of Cross-Coupling Polymerizations: A Facile Route to Triblock Polymers

• Main Authors: Cox, Jason R. (Contributor), Kang, Hyun A. (Contributor), Igarashi, Takeshi (Contributor), Swager, Timothy M (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry (Contributor), Swager, Timothy Manning (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society (ACS), 2012-10-24T19:40:42Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

The potential use of conjugated polymers in device applications is often limited by their less than optimal physicochemical properties. This work describes an efficient protocol to end-cap conjugated polymers synthesized via palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling polymerizations with norbornene groups. Specifically, the hydroarylation of norbornadiene is shown to be a high-yielding end-capping method. These strained bicyclic alkenyl end groups can be transformed into macroinitiators via ring-opening metathesis polymerization and can polymerize other strained monomers, such as norbornene, yielding elastomeric triblock copolymers.
United States. Army Research Office (Contract W911NF-07-D-004)
United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-10-1-0395)