Azlactone Telechelic Polyolefins as Precursors to Polyamides: A Combination of Metathesis Polymerization and Polyaddition Reactions

Abstract

Expanding on our strategy to design telechelic polyolefins through the catalyzed ring-opening metathesis polymerization/cross metathesis/ring-closing metathesis polymerization of cyclic olefins using bifunctional symmetric alkene chain transfer agents (CTAs), we have now explored the metathesis of cyclooctene (COE), 1,5,9-cyclododecatriene (CDT), and norbornene (NB), using azlactone (AZL)-functional CTAs, toward the synthesis of original AZL telechelic polyolefins. The monofunctional 2-vinyl-4,4-dimethylazlactone predominantly gives, as anticipated, (isomerized) monofunctional and/or difunctional PCOEs. On the other hand, the new symmetric AZL-based CTAs 1–3, namely, (E)-2,2′-(ethene-1,2-diyl)bis(4,4-dimethyloxazol-5(4H)-one) (1), (E)-2,2′-(but-2-ene-1,4-diyl)bis(4,4-dimethyloxazol-5(4H)-one) (2), and (E)-2,2′-(but-2-ene-1,4-diyl)bis(3-oxa-1-azaspiro[4.5]dec-1-en-4-one) (3), selectively give α,ω-di(AZL) telechelic PCOEs, along with minor amounts of cyclic PCOE. The synthesis of related AZL telechelic CDT ...