Synthesis of high-molecular weight block copolymers of norbornene and propylene with methyl methacrylate initiated by a fluorenylamido titanium complex

Abstract

Synthesis of a norbornene–propylene–methyl methacrylate (MMA) block terpolymer was achieved using a fluorenylamide-ligated titanium complex for the first time. Unlike other block copolymerization examples of olefins and MMA, the second MMA polymerization required an additional aluminium compound, indicating that the carbonyl group of MMA was activated only by aluminium Lewis acid. Polymerization reactions of propylene and MMA both proceeded in a syndiotactic-specific manner.