Synthesis and Characterization of Substituted Tetracyclododecene Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymers

Abstract

Polymers of substituted norbornenes made by ring-opening metathesis polymerization have been been previously studied and have shown potential for tunable thermal and mechanical properties.1 Polymers of two new substituted norbornene monomers, hexyl- and phenethyltetracyclododecene, have the potential to open up a wider range of accessible properties than the current commercially available polymers. The work presented here explores the detailed isomeric compositions of these monomers along with their polymerization kinetics and the polymers’ thermal and mechanical properties. Polymerization kinetics were characterized by analysis of NMR spectra of reaction solutions at various conversion. Thermal properties were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. Mechanical properties were assessed by uniaxial stress-strain testing. The work presented here shows that the polymer of phenethyltetracyclododecene has properties well suited for applications to reactive 3D printing and well as a coating for organic light emitting diodes, having a glass transition temperature of 120 °C as measured by differential scanning calorimetry, little degradation upon heating to 170 °C, and a room temperature elastic modulus of 1.7 GPa.