Synthesis of 1‐hexene/1,7‐octadiene copolymers using coordination polymerization and postfunctionalization with triethoxysilane.

Homo‐ and copolymerization of 1‐hexene (H) and 1,7‐octadiene (O) were done using two different catalysts 1,4‐bis(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl)acenaphthenediiminedibromo nickel (II) and rac‐ethylenebis(indenyl)zirconium dichloride [rac‐Et(Ind)2ZrCl2]. The metallocene catalyst showed higher activity than the nickel α‐diimine catalyst in homo‐ and copolymerization. The 1H NMR studies confirmed the formation of copolymers containing 8–47% of 1,7‐octadiene. In the copolymerization of hexene and diene, as the amount of incorporated diene in the copolymers increased, their Tg increased. TGA results showed that thermal stability of the polymer increases with the increase of 1‐hexene incorporation in the polymer chain. Finally 1‐hexene/1,7‐octadiene copolymers were functionalized by triethoxysilane in the presence of hexachloroplatinic acid. The 1H NMR spectrum of the functionalized samples showed that the double bonds in the copolymer structure were completely eliminated. The DSC analysis showed higher Tgs for the functionalized copolymer. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020, 137, 48934. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]