Organic-inorganic copolymers with double-decker silsesquioxane in the main chains by polymerization via click chemistry

Abstract

A series of novel organic–inorganic copolymers with polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) in the main chains were synthesized via the copper-catalyzed Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition polymerization approach. Toward this end, we synthesized 3,13-azidopropyloctaphenyl double-decked silsesquioxane (DDSQ). This difunctional POSS macromer was used to copolymerize with α,ω-dialkynyl-terminated oligoethylenes with variable number of ethylene units. The organic–inorganic copolymers were obtained with the mass fraction of POSS up to 79%. Gel permeation chromatography showed that the high-molecular-weight copolymers were successfully obtained in all the cases. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that the amplitude of glass transitions for these copolymers was very feeble, suggesting that the segmental motions responsible for the glass transitions was highly restricted with DDSQ cages in the main chains. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the organic–inorganic hybrid copolymers displayed extremely high thermal stability. Contact angle measurements showed that these organic–inorganic copolymers are highly hydrophobic and possessed very low surface energy. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2013, 51, 4221–4232