Synthesis of 5-(dimethylsilyl)pentylalkylferrocene-grafted HTPB (alkylFc-HTPB) via platinum-catalyzed hydrosilylation

Abstract

In this work, at first alkylferrocene derivatives were synthesized according to procedure described in the literature. (5-Chloropentanoyl)ferrocene derivatives were prepared by Friedel–Crafts acylation of ferrocene and alkylferrocene derivatives with 5-chloropentanoyl chloride in dichloromethane, and AlCl3 was used as catalyst. The corresponding 5-chloropentylferrocene derivatives were synthesized from reduction of these products by NaBH4 in diglyme at 0 °C. Finally (5-alkylferrocenylpentyl)dimethylsilane was synthesized from reaction of 5-chloropentylferrocene derivatives with magnesium in THF and reaction of corresponding Grignard reagents with chlorodimethylsilane in 82–87% yields. 1H and 13C NMR, FT-IR spectroscopy supported the predicted structure of the product. Nine samples of alkylferrocene-grafted hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (alkylFc-HTPB) derivatives, containing different percent of iron, were synthesized by hydrosilylation reaction of [5-(alkylferrocenyl)pentyl]dimethylsilane with hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), in the presence of catalytic amount of the hexachloroplatinic acid (Speier’s catalyst). FT-IR spectroscopy was utilized to follow the progress of the reaction, by monitoring the loss of the Si–H absorption at 2110 cm−1, and the reaction was completed in 24 h. Some properties of resulting prepolymer like viscosity, glass transition temperature and iron percentage as important parameters in production of composite propellants were investigated. For example, the viscosity increased with increasing iron content because of the greater extent of ferrocene grafting in the polymer.