The synthesis of mechanically interlocked polymers is of interest due to the intriguing properties that are postulated from the presence of a material that contains a high concentration of topological bonds. Poly[n]catenanes, polymers whose structure consists solely of interlocked macrocycles are of considerable interest as the high mobility of the topological structure may lead to materials that exhibit high flexibility and high strength. The synthesis of poly[n]catenanes provided a formidable challenge and remained elusive until recently. This presentation will describe our synthetic approach via efficient ring-closing of rationally-designed metallosupramolecular polymers (MSPs) to obtain poly[n]catenanes in high yields (~75%). The polymers obtained contain a mixture of branched, linear and cyclic polycatenanes (average Mn= 21.4 kDa) that have each been fractionated and fully characterized by GPC-MALS, 1H NMR, MALDI-TOF MS. The characterization of these materials will be presented in detail, in addition to further studies detailing how the size and rigidity of the macrocycle monomers affect the molecular weight and product distribution of the polymeric materials obtained. In this presentation our recent approaches to obtain high molecular weight linear poly[n]catenanes will also be described.

Effects of component design on the synthesis of poly[n]catenanes

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.