DMA study of a family of ROMP thermoset polymers with Ru-catalysts based on decyclopentadiene derivatives

Polymeric materials synthesized using ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) has seen increased importance in both industry and academia due to the versatility, functionality, and unique properties that the resulting polymers possess. Well-defined ruthenium-based catalysts have proven to be some of the most powerful metathesis catalysts due to their functional group tolerance and stability in both moisture and air. Nonetheless, the chemical and physical properties of the polymeric materials formed are still dependent on the nature of the used catalyst.

Thermosetting materials are widely used in a variety of applications, but they generally display poor tractability after curing, which limits their use in applications where degradable or re-workable polymers are advantageous. Moreover, it is difficult to produce homogeneous mixtures of initiator/catalyst and monomers prior to polymerization because latency is difficult to achieve in the more reactive (and interesting) cases.

The cross-linked polymers obtained from dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) and its derivatives, show high thermal stability and exceptional mechanical strength. Because of their high reactivity, it remains challenging to develop a bulk system which has low ROMP activity when mixed under normal conditions and that can be rapidly activated upon stimulation by heat or light. To address these challenges, we have now studied the reactivity of derivatives of DCPD (i.e. alcohol, esters and ethers) with different catalysts (such as G-II, Ru-CAAC and latent Ru-S-Ph catalyst) at different monomer/catalyst ratios. Thus, a library of homo and new co-polymer films were synthesized and analyzed by DMA (dynamic mechanical analysis) to learn about their mechanical and thermal stability properties.

Reference:

Saha, Y. Ginzburg, I. Rozenberg, O. Iliashevsky, A. Ben-Asuly and N. G. Lemcoff, Cross-linked ROMP polymers based on odourless dicyclopentadiene derivatives; Polym. Chem., 2016, 7, 3071.