Initiation via Haloboration in Living Cationic Polymerization

University of Massachusetts, Lowell
posted on 01/14/2009

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A composition of the invention includes a polymer component which consists essentially of an asymmetric telechelic polymer having a boron-containing head group. These asymmetric telechelic polymers can also have halogen tail groups. The end group functionalities make these polymers extremely useful because, for example, the functionalities facilitate subsequent elaboration of the polymer. A method of forming the composition includes forming a reaction mixture which consists essentially of an olefin, a Lewis acid, and a base which will react with essentially all protic impurities in the reaction mixture, thereby preventing protic initiation during polymerization of the olefin. The reaction mixture is exposed to conditions which cause the olefin to react to form an initiator in situ which can cause polymerization of additional olefin to form a polymerized olefin consisting essentially of a telechelic polymer. In another embodiment, the initiator has the structure BX.sub.2 —[CH.sub.2 —C(CH.sub.3).sub.2 ].sub.n A, where “n” is at least one, “X” is a halogen, and “A” is a leaving group.